|
India Haldia Petchem shuts naphtha cracker after fire [ 03 Jul, 2009]
India's Haldia Petrochemicals had shut its 520,000 tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracker, following a small fire just after midnight, industry sources said on Friday.
The company is still investigating the cause of the fire, and it was not immediately clear when the unit could restart, one trader said.
The company could not immediately comment on the matter.
"The company can't ascertain how long the shutdown would be, as they are still assessing the situation. The fire happened sometime around midnight. But the fire is under control," the trader added.
This is the second incident at the site, as Haldia had experienced a deadly accident in late May, after it shut the unit down for maintenance, which started on May 8. (Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
Source: Reuters
IOC sells July naphtha lots to Cargill, Itochu [ 02 Jul, 2009]
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) sold up to 61,500 tonnes of naphtha for July lifting, bringing the country's total exports for next month to more than 620,000 tonnes, which traders said are inadequate to plug the gap caused by low Western arbitrage inflows.
The state-owned refiner sold 30,000 tonnes of the petrochemical feedstock by tender for July 17-19 lifting from Kandla to Western trader Cargill at $26.00-$27.00 a tonne premium to its own price formula.
It sold another 30,500-31,500 tonnes for July 29-31 lifting to Itochu at around $29.00 a tonne premium.
IOC's July premiums are sharply higher compared to what it had fetched for June parcels at around $4.00-$22.00 a tonne premium, as short supplies caused by limited Western naphtha imports in July helped pushed up FOB premiums.
Western naphtha arriving this month are estimated to be around 165,000 tonnes, markedly below this year's peak at more than 800,000 tonnes in May.
Source: Reuters
|
