Chinese Propane Imports Seen Rising With 2 PDH Startups

According to Platts, China’s Oriental Energy plans to start its second PDH plant this month. Facility capacity is reported at 660,000 million tonnes. Startup was postponed from the third quarter, sources said, in the lead-up to September’s G20 summit in Hangzhou when China ordered plants and factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces to halt production to reduce pollution levels.

The new plant is expected to run at full capacity. Oriental Energy has LPG supply from existing U.S. term contracts to feed its first facility at Zhangjiagang, eastern Jiangsu Province, which started operations in May last year. The company also imports LPG from Iran. To meet propane requirements for its second plant, Oriental is said to be talking to Middle East producers, among them Saudi Aramco and Qatar’s Tasweeq.

Separately, Hebei Haiwei was reported to be performing test runs at the first phase of its new PDH plant, which has a propylene production capacity of 500,000 million tonnes a year. When run at full capacity, the plant requires up to 730,000 million tonnes a year, or 60,000 million tonnes a month, of LPG feedstock. The second phase of the project will see another 500,000 million tonnes a year of propylene capacity coming online. Startup of the second phase is unknown.