S Korea's SKGC shuts No. 1 cracker in Ulsan permanently on Dec. 10

Singapore — South Korea's SK Global Chemical shut its small No. 1 naphtha-fed steam cracker in Ulsan permanently on Dec. 10 due to aging-related issues, a company source said on Dec. 11.

The No. 1 steam cracker is able to produce 200,000 mt/year of ethylene and 140,000 mt/year of propylene.

The company will keep normal operations of its No. 2 steam cracker at the same location. The No. 2 unit is able to produce 660,000 mt/year of ethylene, 350,000 mt/year of propylene and 110,000 mt/year of butadiene.

Meanwhile, the company's joint venture Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical plans to restart its naphtha-fed steam cracker in Wuhan in the second-half of December as scheduled after the turnaround and debottlenecking, the source said.

The cracker was shut down in October, S&P Global Platts reported previously.

SK Wuhan's steam cracker is able to produce 800,000 mt/year of ethylene and 400,000 mt/year of propylene.

After the debottlenecking, the cracker's ethylene production capacity will be increased to 1.1 million mt/year and propylene capacity to 550,000 mt/year.

The company will add a new 60,000 mt/year butadiene unit at the plant.