Philippines’ JG Summit delays HDPE unit start-up

: Petrochemicals
22/01/25

Philippine petrochemical producer JG Summit is expected by market participants to now start up its new 250,000 t/yr high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit at Batangas in mid-2022, a delay from an earlier target of this year's first quarter.

The reasons for the HDPE start-up delay are unclear, according to participants. The unit uses Chevron Phillips Chemical's Martech technology. But JG Summit earlier postponed the start-up of new petrochemical capacity including an aromatics extraction unit, a butadiene extraction unit and an expanded polypropylene (PP) unit from late 2020 to the second quarter of 2021 because of Covid-19-related issues.

JG Summit's delays follows expectations of further delays in the start-up of Malaysia's Pengerang petrochemical complex from this year's first quarter to mid-2022 because of continuing technical difficulties.

Pengerang has a 1.3mn t/yr cracker that can produce up to 630,000 t/yr of propylene, 165,000 t/yr of benzene and 180,000 t/yr of butadiene. Its polymers plant includes a 350,000 t/yr linear low-density polyethylene unit, a 400,000 t/yr HDPE unit and two 450,000 t/yr PP units.

By Yee Ying Ang and Toong Shien Lee

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