SCG to halt Map Ta Phut cracker for a month in November

what happened

According to OPIS, citing a source familiar with the matter, Thailand's SCG Chemicals intends to shut its Map Ta Phut cracker for roughly a month of maintenance in November. Operations are expected to resume in the middle of December. The planned work follows the return of the Rayong Olefins cracker after a six-month outage, which began in March when feedstock shortages linked to the Middle East war forced the unit down.

OPIS data gives Map Ta Phut an annual capacity of 900,000 metric tons of ethylene, plus 500,000 mt of propylene. Rayong, by comparison, is rated at 900,000 mt for ethylene and 450,000 mt for propylene. Cracker operators are buying less LPG as its discount to naphtha in Asia narrows. The prompt Far East propane-to-Japan naphtha swap spread opened Wednesday at minus $34.69 per mt, compared with minus $60.90 a month earlier. Operators typically move from naphtha to LPG when the spread falls below minus $50 per mt.

The source said the tighter spread and the Map Ta Phut turnaround together cut planned November LPG cracking to about 35,000 mt, down from 84,000 mt in October. On Tuesday, OPIS put CFR Japan propane at $971 per mt and CFR Japan naphtha at $1,009.25 per mt.

why it matters

For markets, the outage points to weaker near-term LPG demand from Asian crackers in November. Lower ethylene and propylene output during the stoppage could tighten regional petrochemical supply, while the propane-naphtha spread will keep shaping which feedstock operators choose.

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