China's Hengli Petrochemical has taken its 2.5 million metric tons per year purified terephthalic acid or PTA plant in Dalian offline for maintenance with an undetermined restart date, industry sources said. The company's three other 2.2 million mt/year plants and another 2.5 million mt/year plant at the same site remain operational, sources added.
The shutdown comes at the start of the annual maintenance season in China, which typically runs from March to July and coincides with the summer peak in demand for polyester products, especially polyethylene terephthalate bottles.
PET prices have surged recently, driven by escalating feedstock costs linked to ongoing Middle East tensions which have indirectly impacted the food packaging sector.
According to Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS, polyester fiber chip prices stood at $1,025/mt FOB Northeast Asia, down 1% week on week on April 9, while local Chinese partially oriented yarn pr POY 150d/48f prices were 1.1% higher over the same period at 9,250 yuan/mt.
Besides Hengli Petrochemical, other PTA producers are also scheduling shutdowns; Ineos Zhuhai Chemical, for instance, plans to take its 1.1 million mt/year Zhuhai plant offline for maintenance in April.
As Middle East tensions tighten feedstock supply chains, several other Chinese PTA producers have also begun reducing their operating rates this month.
Jiangsu Hailun Petrochemical has cut the operating rate of its 3.2 million mt/year PTA plants in Jiangyin by 5 percentage points to 95%, while Yisheng New Material has reduced its 3.6 million mt/year No. 1 PTA plant in Ningbo by 30 percentage points to 50%, and has reduced the operating rate of its other 3.6 million mt/year to 90%, an industry source said.
The ongoing maintenance shutdowns and production cuts have led to average Chinese PTA plant operating rates falling by 2.4 percentage points week on week to 76.6% on Friday, while the average Chinese polyester plant operating rate decline slightly by 0.1 percentage point over the same period to 86.5%, the source added.
On the other hand, PTA conversion costs -- which measure the profitability of converting paraxylene or PX to PTA -- remain above 300 yuan ($44)/mt, a level deemed viable for PTA players to continue to keep their production lines running. Moreover, downstream polyester product margins have improved, which have in turn supported PTA demand. Margins for POY have risen above 700 yuan, while those for PET bottles are close to 500 yuan.
In addition, several Chinese PX plants are scheduled for annual maintenance this month. According to another industry source, these include Sinopec Jinling's 600,000 mt/year plant in Nanjing and Formosa Chemical & Fiber's Corp 910,000 mt/year plant in Mailiao, both of which are set to go offline on April 15. These shutdowns are expected to exacerbate the current supply crunch in the PX sector, further tightening the availability of feedstock for PTA production.
On the other hand, reflecting a broader downturn in upstream energy markets, Chinese PTA prices slumped 9.2% week on week to 6,290 yuan/mt. Market confidence was further shaken on Monday by stalled negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which cast a bearish outlook across the complex.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Serena Seng, sseng@opisnet.com; Editing by Mei-Hwen Wong, wong@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2026 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)
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