Sinopec Jiujiang Petrochemical in central China has reduced daily LPG supply to about 450 tonnes, down by roughly 44% or 350 tonnes because of temporary maintenance at a catalytic unit, a company source said on Monday.

"The catalytic unit was shut on Monday and our LPG production will decline further in the coming days, because LPG output from our gas fractionation unit will be affected as our feedstock for the gas fractionation unit becomes short. This will support our sales notably," said the source.

The production cut is expected to last about eight days, said the source.

The supply drop will bolster the central China’s LPG market further. Local prices have not followed recent plunges in south China, in part because of limited supply when the delivery of arbitrage products from northwest China are impacted by heavy snow in northwest China. In addition, Wuhan Petrochemical in central China has resumed the consumption of LPG for ethylene production and reduced LPG supply.

Located in Jiangxi province, Jiujiang Petrochemical has a topping capacity of 6.5m tonnes/year. The company usually produces about 800 tonnes/day of LPG, including residential LPG and etherified C4.

(c1energy.com Feb 10, 2014)