Indonesia's Lotte Titan mulls over plant shutdown

PT Lotte Chemical Titan Nusantara is reportedly scheduling a brief shutdown at its PE complex in Cilegon, Indonesia within this month, December 2017 due to lack of ethylene supply.

Initial plan calls for three weeks off-line at PE 1 and PE 3 lines on 7 December and 15 December respectively. Line PE 1 produces HDPE injection, monofilament and roto while PE 3 runs LLDPE. No impact on the PE 2, which focuses on HDPE film grade.

A source close to the company informed of a possible disruption in supply for the affected grades while adding, “Ethylene costs are too high at the moment, which make it uneconomical for us to run the plant. We might also attempt to lift selling prices in order to cover the costs.”

PT Lotte Chemical Titan Nusantara has nameplate capacity of 200,000 tons/year of LLDPE and 250,000 tons/year of HDPE.