South Korea's Kumho P&B Chemicals is running its recently expanded No. 2 solvents line at Yeosu at about 100% of capacity after a June 22-23 restart, a source close to the company said Monday.
The line was shut mid-May for maintenance and debottlenecking, which increased its phenol production capacity from 100,000 mt/year to 135,000 mt/year and acetone output from 60,000 mt/year to 84,000 mt/year.
The expanded line was to restart mid-June but this was delayed to June 27 for undisclosed reasons. But it was able to restart the line in the middle of last week. Kumho owns three solvent lines at Yeosu.
The No. 3 line, which can produce 205,000 mt/year of phenol and 123,000 mt/year of acetone, is also running at full capacity.
Kumho's 30-year-old No. 1 solvents plant, which can make 30,000 mt/year of phenol and 20,000 mt/year of acetone, was scrapped in 2008 because of poor margins.
