India's Reliance Industries Ltd. has commissioned the second phase of its paraxylene plant at Jamnagar, the company said in a statement filed with National Stock Exchange of India late Thursday.
This follows the successful commissioning of the first phase in late December 2016.
RIL will export its first term PX cargo from the second phase of the PX plant to China at the end of April aboard the MT Bunga Angelica, with 15,000 mt of the 35,000 mt PX shipment destined for Dalian, industry sources said earlier.
Previous destinations of Reliance's PX exports have included southern China's Hainan and Southeast Asia.
A source close to the company earlier told S&P Global Platts that operating rates in the second phase was now at a "fairly high rate."
In addition, 10,000 mt of benzene output from the plant was heard to have been sold on a spot basis for May loading, industry sources said, although further details could not be verified.
RIL's No. 2 aromatics unit at Jamnagar has a nameplate production capacity of 2.2 million mt/year of PX and 500,000 mt/year of benzene.
The startup of the second phase of the PX plant will more than double RIL's PX production capacity to 4.2 million mt/year, making it the world's second-largest PX producer with 9% of global PX capacity and 11% share of global production, the company said in a statement announcing the commissioning the first phase of the plant last December.
