South Korea’s Hanwha Total shutdown cracker following lightning strike

It is reported that Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co has shutdown its naphtha cracker in Daesan earlier today following a lightning strike that caused a power outage. 

The cracker is able to produce 1.41 million tons of ethylene and 980,000 tons of propylene per year, which supply feeds to the downstream units including the 668,000 tons/year of PE and 700,000 tons/year of PP.

The company is assessing the extent of the damage and the impact on the supply, however, it is expected that the cracker might be able to come back online this weekend.

Prior to the incident, Hanwha Total shut the cracker in March for debottlenecking but the restart was delayed until 10 June 2019 due to labour strike over wages.