China's propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plants raised their averaged operating rate to 76.21% by May 16, up from 49-65% in April, data from OilChem showed.
Source: OilChem
This was the highest run rate to date in 2024, which was attributed to the production resumption after the spring maintenance since April, as well as the improving processing margins that encouraged the plants to keep rates high in the month, learned from OilChem.
The PDH plants' losses were estimated to have edged down to less than Yuan 100/t in May from more than Yuan 500/t at the beginning of the year, data showed. If considering the added value of hydrogen, the PDH plants' profits have returned to the positive zone.
This was mainly due to the decrease in the import costs for spot propane from Yuan 5,100-5,200/t to Yuan 4,800-4,900/t, as a result of abundant supply amidst the seasonal lull. At the same time, China's domestic propylene prices firmed at Yuan 6,800-6,900/t, in view of the supply shortage caused by the PDH plants' maintenances in previous stage.
Source: OilChem
At present, the combined PDH production capacity in China has reached 19.87 million t/y, with only 3.90 million t/y capacities under maintenance. Jiangsu Shenghong Petrochemical and Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical Phase II have plans to resume their PDH plants, while Hebei Haiwei Group and Wanda Tianhong Group will carry out maintenances, so the overall operating rates will still be maintained at over 70%.
It is worth noting that during the second and third quarters, Zhenhua Petrochemical's 750,000 t/y, Qingdao Jinneng Phase II's 900,000 t/y and Quanzhou Guoheng's 660,000 t/y PDH plants are expected to be put into operation, with domestic PDH production capacity to exceed 20 million t/y.
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com
