Corrects capacities in paragraphs 3,4
South Korea is currently having a relatively heavy naphtha cracker maintenance spring program, resulting in total olefins supply losses in Asia to peak in April at 7.2pc.
Spring and fall are two seasons that petrochemical plant shut their production units for scheduled maintenance. The supply losses in South Korea during March-June this year will be more severe than the losses over September-November last year, according to Argus data.
South Korea did not export ethylene in the second half of 2018 to build inventories to offset the supply losses during last year's fall turnaround season. About 2.65mn t/yr of capacity was affected during this season.
South Korea's spring turnaround sees about 3.79mn t/yr of capacity affected.
South Korea's turnaround season started with Daesan-based LG Chemical's 1mn t/yr cracker that started its shutdown on 9 March and will complete its maintenance later this week. Hanwha Total on 27 March started an extended turnaround lasting about two months.
These crackers were joined this week by KPIC, which took its 800,000 t/yr unit off line for a turnaround for a month.
YNCC is currently building inventories to prepare for its maintenance shutdown starting in early May. Production at S-Oil's 200,000 t/yr ethylene unit has also been affected after its upstream residue fluid catalytic cracker shut two weeks ago.
