Petrochemical Production and Prices

For the review period, July to November 2009 [Table 1 (a)], production of Urea deceased in September to October , but rose in November.

Methanol production decreased in September due to decreased production from the following plants TTMC I, M5000 and Atlas.  Production however increased in the following months of October and November.

Ammonia production also experienced a drop in production from August to October due to decreased production from YARA and Tringen I plants. Production then rose slightly in November.

Comparing Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 to FY 2008 [Table 1 (b)], Average Urea Production increased by 5.6% to 55,634 metric tonnes (MT), Average Methanol Production decreased by 6.7% to 471,157 MT, and Average Ammonia Production increased by 3.5% to 435,894 MT.

Average Ammonia Production slight increase was mainly due to a plant turnaround (TAR) and maintenance issues at the ammonia plants, causing a decline in overall production (specifically at Tringen II, CNC and N2000).On April 14th, the ammonia plant of the AUM complex started operations; further plants to be included in the complex are a urea plant, a nitric acid plant, an ammonium nitrate plant, a UAN mixing plant and two melamine plants.  

Average Methanol Production decreased due to decrease in production at the M1, MIV, Titan, M5000, and Atlas plants, mainly due to maintenance issues that caused plants to have significant shut down durations. Titan and Atlas each experienced a TAR that took place during this time period. There was increased production at the CMC and TTMCII plants.

Average Urea Production increase was as a result of the urea plant not being in a TAR as it was in July 2008. There were however, plant downtimes in the review year (Jan & May 2009), but total production was still greater than previous year.

Prices and Market Performance

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