China's Shenghong refining complex to receive first crude cargo late October

China's private refining complex Shenghong Petrochemical is likely to receive its first crude cargo in late October, according to trade sources Oct. 15.

The greenfield refining complex with a capacity of 16 million mt/year, got its first round of quota of 2 million mt Oct. 15, which will enable the refinery to bring in its crude imports on time.

Shenghong is likely to take two ESPO cargoes, each of 100,000 mt. One of them is to arrive in late October and the other in November.

The first ESPO cargo, which will load via the China-flagged 113,642 dwt Yuan He Wan tanker, will arrive at Rizhao port around Oct. 23, according to a logistics source.

The two cargoes are likely to be supplied by state-owned trading companies, separately.

The refinery has booked another cargo of crude from Saudi Aramco to arrive at Qingdao port in mid November, with grades and volumes not known yet.

The refiner has to receive crude cargoes from the neighboring Rizhao port and Qingdao port in Shandong province, as well as Ningbo in Zhejiang province, because its own berth with a 300,000-dwt crude receiving dock remains under construction, according to a logistics source.

No trial rate

There is no update regarding the trial date at Shenghong. Market sources said they expect the trial run to start in H2 November, delayed from the original plan of Aug. 26.

"All depends on the construction status at the project," said a company source who placed the trial date at the year end.

Located in the coastal city of Lianyungang, in Jiangsu province, the company's 16 million mt/year CDU is the country's single biggest by capacity.

The complex, construction for which started in December 2018, had some core facilities delivered June 30, including the CDU, sulfur recovery units, naphtha hydrocracker and its crude tanks.

The complex targets supplying paraxylene to Honggang Petrochemical and Shenghong PTA plants in Lianyungang. Honggang in turn supplies purified terephthalic acid to Shenghong Group's 2.2 million mt/year polyester plant in the same province.