HCBR Monthly Operating Rate Dropped

The monthly operating rate of China’s HCBR industry in May was 52.2%, up 1.2% M-O-M but down 1.62% Y-O-Y. From the perspective of enterprise nature, the operating rates at state-owned enterprises were 69%, up 8.4% M-O-M; those at private enterprises were less than 30%, down 6.5% M-O-M.

Major reasons were as follows. YPC-GPRO (Nanjing) Rubber restarted the HCBR unit. The unit at PetroChina Sichuan Petrochemical remained shut. The units at Zhejiang Transfar Chemical, Zibo Qixiang Tengda Chemical and Hipro New Material Technology were shut down. The total capacity at these three plants was 210kt/a (normally, the units didn’t run at full loads). Thus, the unit shutdowns led to the operating rates decrease at private enterprises.

According to SCI, the operating rate in June will be largely stable from May, around 54% as estimated.