Sumitomo Chemical operates CPL plant at reduced rate

10 Jan '14

1 min read

Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. is operating its Niihama, Ehime prefecture-based caprolactam (CPL) plant at reduced rate.

“The CPL plant is currently running at 80 percent capacity level, as the market situation is bad,” a company official told fibre2fashion.

“We managed to operate the plant at full capacity till December 2013 due to good relationships in the domestic market as well as due the fact that the plant was shut for maintenance turnaround in the month of November 2013, and therefore our inventory levels were not so high,” the official further informed.

The official said they are expecting the market condition to remain difficult due to the upcoming Chinese new year holidays in the end of January 2014.

When asked about maintenance schedule, the official said they plan to have their annual maintenance turnaournd at the CPL plant in October-November this year for around 40 days.

The CPL plant has two lines with production capacities of 100,000 mt/year and 80,000 mt/year.

CPL is primarily used in the manufacture of synthetic fibres, especially Nylon 6.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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