China's PDH plants' run rates are expected to decline to 64% in March, down from the average rate of 65.73% in February, primarily due to the routine maintenance. However, the PDH plants plan to ramp up rates in April on recovering processing margins, based on data from OilChem.
China PDH Plant Run Rate
Source: OilChem
The higher February run rate was attributed to the return of PDH plants from maintenance, such as Tianhong Chemicals, Qixiang Tengda, Ruize Chemical and Lihua Yiweiyuan Chemical, as well as the commissioning of Ningbo Kingfa Phase II's new 600,000 t/y PDH plant, which drove the run rates up to 69.32%.
Nonetheless, many PDH plants have plans to take routine maintenance during the spring. Separately, Jinneng Chemical (Qingdao) has been shut down for maintenance on March 12, Formosa Plastics (Ningbo), Oriental Energy (Ningbo), Jiangsu Ruisheng New Material, Zhongjing Petrochemical, and Ningbo Kingfa Phase II are expected to shut down for maintenance in H2 March, which will lower the plant run rates to under 60%.
China PDH Maintenance Schedule
Owner |
Plant |
Capacity (Kt/y) |
Start Time |
End Time |
Puyang Far East Technology |
PDH |
150 |
2023/5/12 |
Pending |
Zhejiang Shaoxing Sanyuan Petrochemical |
PDH |
450 |
H2 Sep 2023 |
Pending |
Zhejiang Huahong New Materials |
PDH Phase II |
450 |
2023/9/12 |
Pending |
Shandong Ruize Chemical Technology |
PDH |
300 |
2024/3/5 |
2024/3/13 |
Jiangsu Yanchang Zhongran Chemical |
PDH |
600 |
H2 Nov 2023 |
Apr 2024 |
Shandong Binhua New Material |
PDH |
600 |
2023/8/29 |
End-Mar 2024 |
Lihua Yiweiyuan Chemical |
PDH |
600 |
2024/3/5 |
2024/3/13 |
Liaoning Kingfa Science & Technology |
PDH |
600 |
2024/1/7 |
Apr 2024 |
Oriental Energy (Ningbo) New Materials |
PDH Phase I |
600 |
H1 Apr 2024 |
Mar 2024 |
Jinneng Chemical (Qingdao) |
PDH |
600 |
2024/3/12 |
Apr 2024 |
Jiangsu Sierbang Petrochemical |
PDH |
600 |
H2 Mar 2024 |
May 2024 |
Jiangsu Ruiheng New Material Technology |
PDH |
450 |
2024/3/25 |
May 2024 |
Source: OilChem
Looking ahead, with the restart of PDH plants over April-May, the run rates will rise again in H2 April to over 65%. At the same time, some new plants are planned to come on line in the second quarter, such as Quanzhou Guoheng Chemical, Zhongjing Petrochemical Phase II, Jinneng Chemical (Qingdao) Phase II, and Zhenhua Petrochemical, with a total production capacity of 3.31 million t/y. With the capacity expansion, China's PDH plants will face more intensive competition in the later stage.
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com