Shanghai phenol plants shut amid gas supply cuts

Three Chinese phenol plants in the Shanghai Caojing industrial park were forced to shut today because of maintenance of natural gas pipelines.

Gas is used at phenol production facilities for heating and to reduce emissions.

Shanghai Cepsa's 250,000/150,000 t/yr phenol/acetone unit, Mitsui Shanghai's 250,000/150,000 t/yr unit and Shanghao Gaoqiao's 140,000/100,000 t/yr unit are expected to be shut for a week. This will result in demand losses for feedstock benzene by 9,000t and feedstock propylene by around 5,000t.

The unexpected shutdowns saw phenol spot prices in east China climb today to 7,300-7,400 yuan/t ($1,037-1,051/t) ex-tank Jiangsu, up by Yn150-200/t from last week.