China's Zhongjin Petrochemicals has stabilized and raised aromatics production from its new Ningbo facility after trial runs that started in August.
The unit is producing nearly 4,400 t/d of paraxylene (PX), or about 80pc of its nameplate capacity. Zhongjin's Ningbo facility has a nameplate capacity to produce up to 2mn t/yr of PX and 500,000 t/yr of benzene, with it receiving feedstock from an upstream reforming unit, a fluid catalytic cracker and a hydrocracker.
Zhongjin is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rongsheng Petrochemicals that in turn owns a 50pc stake in prominent purified terephthalic acid (PTA) producer Yisheng Petrochemicals. Zhongjin's PX production is likely to be wholly supplied to Yisheng that operates more than 13mn t/yr of PTA capacity in Ningbo, Hainan and Dalian.
Benzene will be sold domestically to consumer segments like methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. Some of the current volumes from the plant are being bought by consumers and a key local producer in China. Operating rates at some of Sinopec's plants have been reduced in recent times, which has resulted in lower benzene supplies in the domestic market.
Zhongjin relies primarily on straight-run fuel oil to produce petrochemicals, but also imports some heavy naphtha to supplement its raw materials slate.
Naphtha-PX margins have steadily narrowed since last month following the start-up of Zhongjin's plant, albeit at a slower than expected rate because of continuing maintenance in South Korea,. The September average naphtha-PX spread stood at $348.60/t as of yesterday according to Argus DeWitt data, or about $10/t narrower than last month.
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