Thunderstorm strikes petchem plants in Daesan, S Korea

24 Jul '10

2 min read

South Korea's industrial estate, Daesan, was struck with yet another thunderstorm, which resulted in electricity cuts, thereby, shutting down a number of petrochemical plants.

Samsung Total's 850,000 ton a year naphtha cracker, clubbed with its downstream plants were down at the site. These units consisted of 120,000 ton per year mono ethylene glycol (MEG) and a 650,000 ton per year paraxylene (PX) unit.

Further more, included in the list of damages are the 700,000 ton per year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit of Samsung Petrochemical and the 360,000 ton per year PX unit of HC Petrochem,

Although, closure of plant has not been officially confirmed by the firms, but the news of thunderstorm affected plant, leading to their shutdowns reached the Asian PX market and the bids then rose by $10-15 per ton.

Market players informed that, bids were at $875 per ton CFR (cost and freight) Taiwan and/or CMP (China Main Port), with offers on ice, as the market was expecting a rise in the prices.

But there were also plants which survived the electricity cut in thunderstorm struck Daesan, which included 760,000 ton per year cracker of LG Chemical and the 1 million ton per year cracker of Honam, informed company officials.

It is said that, Daesan, which is situated on the west coast of South Korea is every so often struck by thunderstorms. Some of these thunder storms have in the past affected the electricity supply, thereby, leading to closure of petrochemical plants.

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