Braskem to take its Triunfo, Brazil, ethylene cracker offline for forty days starting Oct. 26 for maintenance; cracker has annual capacity of 1,252,000 tonnes/year

Alison Gallant

LOS ANGELES , October 17, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – Brazil-based Braskem SA announced that it expects to take its Triunfo, Brazil, steam cracker offline Oct. 26 for scheduled maintenance, Platts reported Oct. 17, citing a company source.

The cracker has an annual capacity for ethylene of 1,252,000 tonnes per year, 660,000 tonnes/year for propylene and 106,000 tonnes/year for butadiene, Platts reported.

The shutdown is scheduled to last forty days, which will cause the company to scale back volumes for export, the source told Platts. The source added that the company would, however, keep an eye on inventories for the domestic market.

Braskem also expects to take its polyethylene plant at the same complex in Triunfo offline for maintenance, but did not provide specific dates. The source did, however, tell Platts that PE4, which has an annual capacity of 550,000 tonnes/year, would be offline for 17 days at the end of the month. PE4 produces high-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene and green polyethylene.

The company also plans to suspend production of PE5 for maintenance on different dates for 10 days at a time next month. PE5 has an annual capacity of 415,000 tonnes/year, and produces HDPE, LLDPE and green polyethylene.

The primary source of this article is Platts, New York, New York, Oct. 17, 2011.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.