A VLCC carrying 44,000 tonnes of butane arrived at the port of Changxing Island in Northeast China's Dalian on April 20, the first time that Dalian port received the imported LPG, marking the successful operation of another new LPG port in China, according to open sources.
The port currently is only used for the import operations by Hengli Petrochem (Dalian), which saw its 160,000 cubic meters low-temperature propane/butane storage tank completed on January 23, for the loading and unloading of imported goods.
The imported butane will be used for its own maleic anhydride plant. The refinery has started two 210,000 t/y maleic anhydride plants, with low operating rates due to the lack of feedstock, and will add another two 210,000 t/y maleic anhydride plants in the later stage. The arrival of imported goods can effectively alleviate the supply shortage for the maleic anhydride plants.
Hengli Petrochem (Dalian)'s self-produced propane and butane are mainly used for its own downstream deep processing plants, with no excess goods for external sales under high operating rates. But sometimes it may sell butane due to plant problems. In 2023, it sold 117,000 tonnes of butane because of the shutdown of the alkylation plant, of which 65,400 tonnes of goods flowed to Shandong. This year the refinery still sold isobutene in the first two months, but the increase in in-house consumption led to the cessation of external sales from March.
Source: OilChem
The imported butane this time will be separated into n-butane for the new maleic anhydride plants, as well as isobutene for downstream deep processing with the excess for external sales. In addition, the refinery has signed a long-term contract for the procurement of propane and butane, with imported butane cargoes to arrive continuously, and there will also be an increase in the import of propane in the case of optimistic profits. Therefore, the import volumes of propane and butane in China will further increase in the future.
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com