Chandra Asri announces shutdown to expand cracker

By Romel S. Gurky

IDX-listed petrochemical firm PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP) said its naphtha cracker expansion project totaling some US$380 million which commenced construction in September 2013 is nearing completion.

To integrate and tie-in the new expansion capacity with the existing facilities in Cilegon, Banten, CAP will shut down its cracker plant especially ethylene, polyethylene, and butadiene operations for approximately 90 days from Sept. 25, 2015.

Following the completion of tie-in process which is targeted by December, CAP's naphtha cracker production capacity will increase by some 43 percent, uplifting the annual production of ethylene from 600 kilo tons per annum (kta) to 860 kta, propylene from 320 kta to 470 kta, py-Gas from 280 kta to 400 kta, and mixed C4 from 220 kta to 315 kta.

In addition to the tie-in, CAP will also conduct a scheduled Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) of plant facilities during the shutdown period. TAM is required to improve the reliability and performance of the plant to run optimally and safely. CAP conducts TAM routinely every four years and the last TAM was in 2011. During the process of tie-in/TAM, CAP's other downstream plant facilities namely Polypropylene and Styrene Monomer will continue to operate.

In line with its business strategy, CAP believes that the cracker expansion and modernization will catapult its facilities to comparable world-scale size and lay the foundation for CAP's future growth in Indonesia's petrochemical industry.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon