Jurong Aromatics to shut Singapore plant mid-Dec for maintenance

[SINGAPORE] Jurong Aromatics Corporation (Jac) plans to stop operations at its petrochemical complex in Singapore from mid-December for maintenance, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

The company "is taking advantage of the current unfavourable market for petrochemicals to re-calibrate our production process to improve efficiency", the spokesman said in an e-mail. No details were available on how long the plant would be shut.

Jac operates a 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) condensate splitter and an aromatics complex which started operations in early third quarter.

The plant has been having some issues that hurt production, industry sources said, adding that Jac had not bought condensate for loading in December and January in the spot market.

SK Group and Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group are Jac's largest shareholders. The other shareholders include Glencore, Arovin, Shefford Investments, Thai KK Industry, Singapore's EDB Investments and India's Essar Group.

REUTERS