US set to receive 13,000 mt of MEG as Saudi capacity starts up

The US will receive around 13,000 mt of monoethylene glycol within a two-week period, a distributor told Platts on the sidelines of the EPCA conference in Berlin Monday.

The two shipments due to straddle the end of October and the beginning of November would mark a change in dynamics for the US glycol market as the region braced itself for imports.

The material was due to be fixed to ship to the US market following startups of new capacity in the Middle East.

In addition to the MEG, around 5,000 mt of co-product diethylene glycol were also scheduled to arrive in the same period.

The imports come after the end of the major antifreeze blending season in the US, which typically occurs between August and September to get product on shelves before the start of winter.

Saudi Arabia's Yanbu National Petrochemical Company (Yansab), announced in mid-September the arrival of its first MEG shipment from its 770,000 mt/year plant at Yanbu Industrial City. The Yansab complex, which centers around a 1.3 million mt/year ethane-fed steam cracker, has the capacity to produce 770,000 mt/year of MEG. In addition, the complex can produce 400,000 mt/year of propylene, 800,000 mt/year of polyethylene (both LDPE and HDPE), 400,000 mt/year of polypropylene, 250,000 mt/year of benzene and a mix of xylene and toluene, 100,000 mt/year of butane-1 and butane-2, and 25,000 mt/year of MTBE.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co, or PetroRabigh, brought on line its 600,000 mt/year plant at Rabigh in March this year.

--Ihsan Rahim, ihsan_rahim@platts.com

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