DATE : 2013-09-05

Lucite International shut down its 100,000 tonne/year rMethyl Methacrylate (MMA) plant in Shanghai, China, on 1 September because of unexpected technical issues, company sources said on Thursday.

A date of when operations would resume could not be confirmed as the plant is still undergoing a recovery process. However, the shutdown is expected to last more than 10 days, the sources added.

According to company sources, the plant, which uses the acetone cyanohydrin process to produce MMA, was unexpectedly shut down because of problems arising from the incorporated Sulphuric Acid Recovery (SAR) unit.

SAR is a procedure which processes the by-product acid from MMA plants for reuse in the main MMA making process.

This is the second time in two months that the plant has shut down because of technical issues. The first shutdown happened in mid-August because of a different production issue and the plant was offline for a week.

This shutdown by Lucite might trigger concerns of tight supply in China and may lead to market players emerging to replenish inventories given the anticipated long holidays in China in October, market sources said.   

Lucite is a subsidiary of Japanese producer Mitsubishi Rayon Co (MRC), which is one of the largest MMA producers in Asia.

SOURCE Icis News