A fire occurred on Sept. 26 at Philippines JG Summit Petrochemical's Bantangas complex, but no impact was observed along the olefins production units, company sources confirmed S&P Global Platts Sept. 29.
The company plans to restart its naphtha-fed steam cracker later in the week ending Oct. 3, and the company's cracker and polymer units were undamaged by the fire that occurred at an effluent containment area of the complex, the sources said.
"The polymer units are running; while, the expected restart of the cracker is within the week," said a company source, adding that the fire incident occurred near the pier area and did not spread to the main manufacturing sites.
"The cracker was shut for short while for other reasons even before the fire, and the fire has no relation to cracker operation," said another company source.
JG Summit plans to run the cracker at full capacity after the restart, the first source said.
Asia's steam crackers have mostly been operating at full or close to full capacity to capitalize on positive olefin margins.
The spread between CFR Northeast Asia ethylene and feedstock CFR Japan naphtha physical assessments widened $3.75/mt week on week and $120.50/mt, or 35.77%, since Sept. 1, to a 13-month high of $457.375/mt at the Asian market close on Sept. 28, Platts data showed. The spread was last higher on Aug. 12, 2019 at $458.50/mt. Since Sept. 3, the spread had risen above the typical breakeven spread of $350/mt, as per market sources and Platts data. It has remained above integrated producers' breakeven spread of around $250/mt since May 12.
The company's naphtha-fed steam cracker at Batangas can produce 216,000 mt/year of pyrolysis gasoline, or pygas; 320,000 mt/year of ethylene, 190,000 mt/year of propylene; and 110,000 mt/year of mixed C4.
Upcoming capacity
At the Batangas complex, JG Summit has new projects in the pipeline to expand its olefins capacity and produce aromatics.
The company plans to complete a 250,000-mt/year high density polyethylene plant by the fourth quarter of 2021. In addition to the new HDPE plant at Batangas, the capacity of an existing polypropylene plant at the same site will be upgraded to 300,000 mt/year from 190,000 mt/year. There are currently two existing HDPE /linear low density polyethylene swing plants at Batangas with a combined nameplate capacity of 320,000 mt/year.
Construction of the company's maiden benzene-toluene-xylenes unit had been delayed due to the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines, as the works were initially planned to be completed by June, but is now planned for the first quarter of 2021.
However, broadly, fundamentals on the aromatics markets were still mixed. Lower run rate in some refineries in the region was described to be lending some support by slowing the previous supply overhang.
JG Summit's BTX unit would have a production capacity of 126,000 mt/year of benzene, 76,000 mt/year of toluene, 46,000 mt/year of mixed xylenes, 29,000 mt/year of non-aromatics with some 21,000 mt/year materials of mixed aromatics, including C9+, all derived using the pygas feedstock produced from the existing steam cracker.
The Batangas PE facility is a joint venture between JG Summit Holdings and Marubeni Corp.
