South Korea's Samsung Petrochemical may keep its 450,000 mt/year No 3 purified terephthalic acid line in Ulsan shut in H1 July, despite completing scheduled maintenance work, due to PTA production weak margins, a source close to the company said Friday.
The line was shut on June 23 and was initially scheduled to be restarted on June 30, the source said.
The PTA margin had been improving from early May to mid-June, due to rising PTA prices, but then started falling again due to a recent rally in feedstock paraxylene prices. The Asian PTA margin stood at minus $102.195/mt at the Asian close Thursday, based on the Platts CFR Taiwan/China PX and CFR China PTA spot assessments.
Meanwhile, the company's 400,000 mt/year No. 1 PTA line at Ulsan, which was shut on June 9 for a turnaround, was restarted on June 16, the source said.
The company has two other PTA lines in South Korea -- the 450,000 mt/year No. 2 line at Ulsan and the 700,000 mt/year No. 4 line at Daesan.
