Capacity utilization of butadiene producers hits new low in June

Capacity utilization of China’s butadiene producers in June decreased considerably from May.

Some producers stop production

Statistics show that in June, the average operating rate of China’s butadiene producers was 65%, down 5 percentage points year on year, and the output was around 188,700 tons.

The production equipment of Qilu Petrochemical, with output capacity of 170,000 tons, stopped production from mid-May to end-June; that of Shandong Huayu Rubber, with output capacity of 60,000 tons, stopped production from end-May to end-June; all butadiene production equipment of Yangtze Petrochemical stopped production; and the production equipment of Fushun Petrochemical, with annual capacity of 160,000 tons, planed to stop production for early-June to mid-July.

The shutting down of these producers dragged down the overall capacity utilization.

Most producers operate as usual

Most of the butadiene producers in China operated as usual in June, accounting for about 79% of the total.

With respect to production techniques, capacity utilization of oxidative dhydrogenation equipment was around 30%, the equipment of Shandong Qixiang, with output capacity of 100,000 tons, kept ordinary production in June. But as the price of butadiene is low, the equipment was operated under low capacity, while other producers didn’t operate the oxidative dhydrogenation equipment to produce butadiene.

Among the transformed equipment, the butadiene production equipment of Shandong Weite Chemical kept ordinary production in June, while that of Huayu put in raw materials in end-June and hasn’t started ordinary operation yet.

Shanghai Petrochemical’s equipment, with output capacity of 120,000 tons, was the only one with higher operating rate. The equipment was almost operated under full load since restart on May 25.

Operating rate may rebound in July

In July, most butadiene production equipments are operated ordinarily.

Qilu Petrochemical restarted production in early July; Fushu Petrochemical will restart production in mid-July; the two equipments of Yangtze Petrochemical will start production separately in early and late July; and Shandong Huayu’s equipment may resume ordinary production in July.

In addition, Lanzhou Petrochemical schedules to stop operating the 135,000-ton butadiene equipment for maintenance for 20 some days, and Fujian Lianhe also plans to stop operating the 180,000-ton equipment in mid-July.

In general, the capacity utilization of China’s butadiene producers is likely to increase from June.

Note:

China has so far 25 butadiene producers with overall capacity of 3.50 million tons.

The samples of the survey involve in 5 producers in the northeast, with a total capacity of 650,000 tons/year; 2 producers in the north, with a total capacity of 335,000 tons/year; 9 producers in the east, with a total capacity of 1.44 million tons/year; 5 producers in the south, with a total capacity of 650,000 tons/year;  2 producers in northwest, with a total capacity of 305,000 tons/year; and 1 produce in central China, with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons.