Methanol exports for March were up 47% from February while methanol production was down 5.2% from March to February, according to data the Ministry of Energy Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago released Monday.
During March, 540,361 mt of methanol were exported and 437,138 mt of methanol were produced, up from February when exports totaled 367,416 mt and production totaled 461,201 mt.
From March 2012, exports were up 43,335 mt, or 8.7%, while production was down 92,517 mt, or 17.1%
Through March 2013, 1,457,403 mt of methanol were exported and 1,420,024 mt were produced. During the same period in 2012, 1,347,415 mt of methanol were exported and 1,400,741 were produced.
Trinidad is home to seven methanol plants with a combined capacity of 6.2 million mt/year and is the origin of the majority of the methanol in the US market.
Methanol production in Trinidad has suffered from a number of power outages since the beginning of 2013 as well as from on-and-off gas curtailments in recent months which have hurt feedstock availability, sources said.
