Yangzi Petrochemical Corp. in eastern China ‘s Jiangsu province is scheduled to complete the expansion of its polypropylene unit in the latter part of this year.
At a cost of 700 million yuan ($1=CNY8.28), the unit is being expanded to become China ‘s largest at 600,000 tons a year from the current 400,000 tons/ year.
The expansion is part of Yangzi’s ongoing program to increase its overall ethylene capacity to 650,000 tons/year. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. , or Sinopec Corp., the parent company of Yangzi, plans to develop Yangzi into a major petrochemical production base by 2005. Yangzi’s other petrochemical projects will include a greenfield 600,000 tons/ year ethylene cracker being jointly built by Yangzi and Germany ‘s BASF AG. The project is expected to start operations in 2005.
