Polychem Indonesia plans to shut its 96,000 mt/year monoethylene glycol line at Serang in Java next week, without a confirmed restart timeline, in response to poor margins, a company source said Tuesday.
The company purchases ethylene to produce MEG. The profit margin for Asian ethylene-based MEG producers was calculated at minus $187/mt Monday, after averaging at minus $235/mt in February.
It margin is calculated as the MEG CFR China price minus the CFR Northeast Asian ethylene price multiplied by 0.605 and deducting additional operating costs of around $150/mt.
The company has another 145,000 mt/year MEG line at Serang that is currently running well, the source added.
