China's PDH plants ramped up their operating rates after returning from maintenance despite poor profits in mid-November, according to OilChem's survey.
Domestic PDH plants operated at an average rate of 67.15% by the week ended November 17, up from a level of below 60% in the first half of the month, as PDH plants such as Jiangsu Shenghong Petrochemical and Liaoning Kingfa returned from scheduled maintenance.
Moreover, Guangxi Huayi, Hebei Haiwei and Sanyuan Petrochemical have planned to resume the operations of their PDH plants in the second half, and domestic PDH plants' operating rates are expected to reach around 70% by then.
However, the processing profits did not show significant improvement, due to stronger imported propane prices, which surged from Yuan 5,100/t to Yuan 6,000/t, as well as low downstream propylene prices amidst weak demand, causing Chinese PDH plants suffering a loss of around Yuan 500-900/t in November.
Under such circumstance, some other PDH plants have planned to pause the production for maintenance in December, including Qixiang Tengda, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Phase I, Jinneng Science & Technology, Dongguan Juzhengyuan Technology Phase I, which may pull back domestic PDH operating rates to 60% or below, although imported propane prices are expected to drop slightly.
China PDH Plants' Operating Rate
Source: OilChem
China PDH-PP Processing Profit
Source: OilChem
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com
