Taiwan's CPC will become a net exporter of isomer-grade mixed xylenes in 2014 from being a net importer as it has been producing more MX by using feedstock reformate supplied by its own system, a company source said Wednesday.
"We are providing feedstock reformate from our internal system to produce isomer-MX on our own, so we will not likely buy isomer-MX from the spot market, but instead will be selling it next year," the company source said.
The source did not say the exact volume it plans to sell in the spot market next year. For this year, CPC has sold around 36,000 mt of isomer-MX at a discount of $14-30/mt to the Platts monthly average of isomer-MX assessment via five tenders, Platts data showed.
CPC is a major paraxylene producer in Taiwan with a total nameplate production capacity of 690,000 mt/year across three aromatics plants in Linyuan, said sources. It previously used to buy isomer-MX -- feedstock for producing PX -- on a regular basis via tenders.
For this year, CPC was heard to have bought around 60,000 mt of isomer-MX via tenders, down from its typical annual purchase volume of 100,000 mt.
CPC started selling feedstock isomer-MX mainly from this year, as it started receiving reformate supply from within its system and also because of poor PX-MX production margins, said a market source.
The PX-MX spread on a CFR Taiwan basis narrowed to an all-year low of $174.50/mt on September 6, before widening to be assessed at $206/mt Monday, Platts data showed.
The weak production margin for PX has also led CPC to plan for shut downs of two aromatics plants. This will also increase availability of isomer-MX to export, the company source said.
CPC plans to shut all three of its aromatics plant at Linyuan in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung on October 25.
The No. 1 unit can produce 220,000 mt/year of PX and 70,000 mt/year of orthoxylene, the No. 2 plant can produce 220,000 mt/year of PX and 70,000 mt/year OX and the the No. 3 plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year of PX and 75,000 mt/year of OX.
"We are going to shut all three aromatics plants at Linyuan on October 25 for about a month, then restart one of the plants for a month. This is being done considering [the] current weak PX production margin," the company official said.
