With the start-up of its fifth PTA line on Changxing Island, Liaoning / China, Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian, Liaoning; www.henglipc.com) has strengthened its position as the world’s largest producer of the PET starting material. The 2.5m t/y line is based on Invista’s (Wichita, Kansas; www.invista.com) “P8” PTA technology. Official start-up of the was on 29 June 2020.

Hengli‘s other four PTA lines, located at the same site, have a combined 11.6m t/y capacity and also use Invista technology. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), the second largest PTA producer worldwide, BP (London / UK; www.bp.com), has a capacity of 7.5m t/y.

Other Chinese PTA producers are also ramping up capacities – Dongying Weilian Chemical, a subsidiary of Dongying United Petrochemical (Dongying, Shandong) is licensing BP’s PTA production technology for a new line. The 2.5m t/y facility is set to come onstream in Q2 2022 (see Plasteurope.com of 17.07.2020). China is the world’s largest PTA producer, with around 48m t/y of the global 87m t/y capacity.