China's Wanhua starts up polyolefin elastomer unit

Chinese producer Wanhua Chemical has started up its new 200,000 t/yr polyolefin elastomer (POE) unit on 29 June, with its first batch of POE loaded and dispatched on 10 July.

This is China's second POE unit after Hainan Beiouyi's 30,000 t/yr unit, which started operations in December 2023. The POE produced by domestic producers uses ethylene and 1-butene as feedstock, as the mass production of feedstock 1-octene has not yet been achieved in China.

Wanhua Chemical has started building the second phase of the POE project, with a production capacity of 400,000 t/yr, at Penglai, Shandong province. It is expected to start operations by the end of 2025, bringing the company's total POE capacity to 600,000 t/yr.

Wanhua Chemical is a state-owned company in Shandong, with businesses covering polyurethane, petrochemicals and fine chemicals, among others. Wanhua Chemical owns and operates a 450,000 t/yr high-density/linear low-density polyethylene (HD/LLDPE) unit, a 350,000 t/yr HDPE unit, and a 300,000 t/yr polypropylene unit.