08 January 2014 01:36 [Source: ICIS news]
MELBOURNE (ICIS)--China's Wuxi Baichuan Chemical Industrial has shut its propylene glycol ether (PGE) plant at Nantong in Jiangsu province because of unfavourable market conditions, a company source said on Wednesday.
The producer in early January shut its plant, which can produce 45,000 tonnes/year of propylene glycol methyl ether (PM) and 50,000 tonnes of PM acetate (PMA), and plans to keep it off line until early February, the source said.
PGE producers in China have been sandwiched between ever-rising feedstock propylene oxide (PO) costs and their downstream buyers’ growing resistance to the sustained PGE price escalation.
The spot prices of raw material PO into China have risen by 27% since early May 2013 to settle at an average of $1,925/tonne CFR (cost & freight) China on 3 January 2014, according to data compiled by ICIS.
In addition to its Nantong operations, Wuxi Baichuan runs a 200,000 tonne/year etac/butac swing plant at Jiangyin, also in Jiangsu province.
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