Unipetrol (Prague / Czech Republic; www.unipetrol.cz) has signed a lump sum contract assigning Technip (Paris / France; www.technip.com) as provider of the furnace technology that will allow it to restart its cracker in Litvinov / Czech Republic, which has been idled following a large fire in August 2015. The site is due to recommence production in July 2016 (see also Plasteurope.com of 23.10.2015). Technip will supply four cracking furnaces for the plant, two of which will be based on its “SMK” coil technology, with the remaining two based on its proprietary “GK6” coil technology.

The French group is also currently building a 270,000 t/y PE plant for Unipetrol at Litvinov, due to start up in 2018 (see Plasteurope.com of 15.09.2015).

Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows that the cracker in Litvinov has nameplate capacities for 544,000 t/y of ethylene and 260,000 t/y of propylene.