Major Chinese refineries' average operating rate set a new low for this year in late September, C1 found. The run rate settled at 77.59% on Sep 22, down by 2.06 percentage points from two weeks ago.
Run rates dropped most significantly in Central China and East China, because of maintenance in Jiujiang Petrochemical and Shanghai Petrochemical. Jiujiang Petrochemical started month-long turnaround on Sep 20, which dragged down Central China's average run rate by 18%. Shanghai Petrochemical in East China began month-long maintenance of an 8-mil-mt/yr crude distillate unit on Sep 17 and slashed it operation rate by about 46%.
The average operation rate also slipped in South China, because of maintenance of some secondary units in Guangxi Petrochemical.
These drops were in part offset by growths in northwest and northeast China and Shandong. Dalian Petrochemical in northeast China hiked its operation rate gradually this month, after restarting production in early September.
Changqing Petrochemical in northwest China restarted production in the past two weeks, after maintenance.
The above figures were obtained through computation on the basis of primary refining capacities of refineries. If calculated on the basis of their complex refining ratio, the average run rate would be 85.27%, down by 2.27 percentage points from two weeks ago.
Previously major domestic refineries' operation rate hit this year’s lowest level of 78.46% at the end of June and hovered at around 80%-81% in July-August, C1's record showed.
The operation rate is likely to rebound in the second half of October, after Luoyang Petrochemical and Shanghai Petrochemical complete maintenance of a combination of 18-mil mt of annual refining capacity.
Starting from Aug 25, C1 increased the number of refineries involved in its research from 23 to 35. As a result, the total refining capacity of these refineries rises from 281-mil mt to 363-mil mt per year, accounting for 72% of the overall refining capacity of China's major refineries.
