Home > Chemical News

Chemical News

China's electricity rationing curbs petchem operations, demand

https://www.chemnet.com   Aug 05,2010
Ongoing electricity rationing in East and mid-China's provinces, on the back of record high consumption levels, have resulted in operation cutbacks at downstream factories and reduced demand for petrochemicals, industry sources said this week.


According to a statement released by the National Development and Reform Commission Tuesday, China established a new record in electricity usage in the second-half of July.


In particular, on July 30, China's electricity usage hit 13.63 billion MW, 200 MW higher than the historical high set just a day before on July 29 at 13.43 billion MW.


East China and mid-China were the regions that clocked the highest electricity usage, the statement said, with the provinces of Jiangsu, Henan,Hunan,Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Tianjin setting fresh highs in consumption as well.


Current levels of consumption are expected to be sustained going forward,as temperatures in those areas are forecast to remain at an average of 39-40 degrees Celsius in the summer.


Record high electricity consumption levels have resulted in shortages all throughout China, particularly in the provinces mentioned above.


Operations at several petrochemical plants in those areas have been affected as electricity supplies are to be rationed out from August, several market sources said. And as such, demand for certain petrochemicals have also been curtailed.


China's Jiangsu Sanmu Group had been unable to startup its new 50,000 mt/year phthalic anhydride plant in Yixing, Jiangsu and could only run its existing 50,000 mt/year PA plant there at 50% capacity due to the electricity shortages. Its dioctyl phthalate plant was also running at 50% because of weak downstream demand following the electricity shortages.


Chongqing Pengwei had also from the end of July, declared force majeure on its purified terephthalic acid supplies from its 900,000 mt/year plant at Chongqing after a power outage.


Meanwhile, several polyester factories such as Nanfang Polyester (400,000 mt/year filament yarn) and Zhejiang Jiabao (560,000 mt/year polyester) were said to be staggering the shutdown of their polyester lines as they grappled with cutbacks in electricity supplies.


Local media also reported that major polyester factories in the Zhejiang province received notification to take turns to shut their units from July to September 15, while several others in Shaoxing and Xiaoshan were ordered to shut or reduce operations by at least 20%.
 Print  |    add to Favorites  |    Close