Home >> Textile News >> China PE plant operating rate hits a new low since Q4 2022

China PE plant operating rate hits a new low since Q4 2022

2024-04-24 08:56:29 CCFGroup

Recently, many PE plants in China have shut for mainteance, leading to a significant decrease in overall operating rates. On Apr 9th, the domestic PE operating rate was around 75.21%, marking a new low since the fourth quarter of 2022. However, the PE market do not experience a significant surge.

Region	Company	Capacity (kt/year)	Operating rate	Note
East China	ZRCC	HDPE/LLDPE	300	shut on Apr 4, and restarted on Apr10
	SECCO	HDPE	300	shut on Apr 4, and may restart on Apr 16
	Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical II	LLDPE/HDPE	450	shut on Apr 8 for around a month
		HDPE	350	shut on Mar 25
		LDPE	400	shut on Apr 9, and may restart on Apr 12
	Satellite petrochemical	HDPE	400	shut on Mar 20 for around 2 months
	Satellite petrochemical II	HDPE	400	shut on Apr 4
North China	Sinopec Yanshan PC	HDPE #2	80	shut on Apr 8, restart undecided
	Sinopec Qilu PC	LLDPE	120	shut on Dec 23, restart undecided
		HDPE/LLDPE	250	shut on Dec 23, restart undecided
		HDPE	140	shut on Dec 23, restart undecided
		LDPE	140	shut on Dec 23, restart undecided
	Wanhua Chemical	HDPE	350	shut on Feb 1, restart undecided
South China	Sinopec Maoming PC	old LDPE	110	shut on Apr 1, restart undecided
	Sinochem Quanzhou	HDPE	400	shut on Apr 6, and may restart on Apr 13
	Zhongke (Guangdong) Refining & Chemical	HDPE	350	shut on Mar 20 for around 2 months
	Sinopec Hainan	HDPE	300	shut on Mar 25 for around a month
Central China	Sinopec Zhongyuan PC	LLDPE	260	shut on Apr 1, and may restart on Apr 13
Northeast China	PetroChina Daqing PC	HDPE #1	80	shut on Apr 8, and may restart on Apr 13
	PetroChina Daqing PC	LDPE #2	200	shut on Apr 8, and restarted on Apr 10
	PetroChina Fushun PC	LLDPE	450	shut on Apr 8, and may restart on Apr 11
	Liaoning Huajin Tongda	old HDPE/LLDPE	150	Long-term shutdown
	Shenyang Chemical	LLDPE	100	Long-term shutdown
	Haiguolongyou	HDPE/LLDPE	400	Long-term shutdown
Northwest China	PetroChina Dushanzi PC	new HDPE/LLDPE #1	300	shut on Apr 9
Northwest China	Jiutai Energy	HDPE/LLDPE	300	shut on Mar 15, and restarted on Apr 10

Currently, the overall shutdown capacity of domestic plants is around 7.08 million tons.

However, the intensively shutdown plants do not provide much support to the market. Although the spot market has seen a slight upward trend, daily price increases are generally kept within 50yuan/mt, with some products and grades increase by 100yuan/mt occasionally, but their overall impact on the market is limited.

Although plants shut for maintenance intensively, many are expected to restart soon. Preliminary estimates indicate that the capacity of plants expected to restart this week is around 2.73 million tons, which would increase the domestic PE operating rate by approximately 8.6%. However, some plants will remain shut down. Overall, the probability of the operating rate dropping below 80% again is relatively low.

Keywords: