Apr China Butadiene Supply Ratcheted Up
By the end of April, there are 43 butadiene producers included in the normal load calculation in China, with a total capacity of 6,466kt/a. The sample capacity is divided by region as follows.
China Butadiene Producer Capacity by Region
In April, the operating rate of China’s butadiene industry was around 64.03%, up 1.87% from last month. According to SCI, the monthly output of butadiene was around 383.9kt in April. Within this month, the butadiene units at Shandong Yuhuang Chemical, Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical, Nanjing Chengzhi Yongqing Energy Technology, Jiutai Energy Inner Mongolia, Shandong Wintter Chemical and Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Phase I remained offline. Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical shut down its Phase I butadiene unit on March 20 and restarted it in early April. PetroChina Fushun Petrochemical shut down its butadiene unit briefly in mid-April. The butadiene units at PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry were shut down in mid-April and late April respectively. The operating rate of other butadiene units saw minor changes.
Overall, the operating rate of China’s butadiene industry ratcheted up M-O-M. Butadiene units with a total capacity of 1,009kt/a were shut in April, and it was estimated that the output losses caused by maintenance reached around 56.092kt.
As seen from the above chart, the operating rate of units at most of China’s butadiene producers mainly remained stable in April, taking up 89% of the total roughly and down 1% M-O-M. As for production technologies, butadiene units via butene ODH technology remained offline. As seen from the butadiene units via C4 extraction technology, the operating rates of butadiene units at PetroChina Fushun Petrochemical, PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical, Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry, etc. whittled down M-O-M, while those at Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical (Phase II), Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical, Shandong Jinhai Chemical, etc. leveled up M-O-M. On the whole, in April, China’s butadiene supply ratcheted up from last month.
In May, the butadiene units at Shandong Yuhuang Chemical, Nanjing Chengzhi Yongqing Energy Technology, Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical, Jiutai Energy Inner Mongolia, Shandong Wintter Chemical and Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical will remain offline. Meanwhile, the butadiene units at Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Phase I, Wanhua Chemical Group, Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical, Shanghai Secco Petrochemical and Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Company are scheduled to take maintenance in May. Other butadiene units will run normally. On the whole, it is envisaged that the butadiene supply will whittle down notably in May. However, considering that the Asian butadiene market may wane recently, the support from supply may be relatively limited.
All information provided by SCI is for reference only, which shall not be reproduced without permission.
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