CPC to Restart No. 4 Naphtha Cracker as Market Demand Improves

By Yu-huay Sun

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- CPC Corp., Taiwan’s state-owned oil refiner, plans to restart its No. 4 naphtha-processing plant in Kaohsiung next month after market demand for ethylene improves, a company official said.

The naphtha cracker, shut on Oct. 11 for scheduled repairs, will resume production on Feb. 2 or Feb. 3, said a CPC official, who declined to be identified because of company policy.

The cracker processes naphtha into ethylene, a material used to make plastics and fabrics. Ethylene prices in South Korea and Japan have risen 11 percent this year, according to Bloomberg data.

CPC operates three such processing plants with a combined annual ethylene output capacity of 1.08 million metric tons. The No. 1 and No. 2 crackers are no longer in operation.

The refiner had planned to restart the 350,000 ton-a-year No. 4 plant in late November and extended the stoppage because of weak market demand. CPC has been operating the No. 3 and No. 5 crackers at about 80 percent of capacity, the official said.

To contact the reporter on the story: Yu-huay Sun in Taipei ysun7@bloomberg.net