China’s Yisheng Petrochemical has shut down its No2, 650,000 tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) line at Ningbo this week, in order to carry out works lasting about ten days. Speculations were rife in the market that Yisheng took the line offline due to a shortage of feedstock paraxylene (PX), but officials declined comments. “We needed to carry out the works before the issue develops into a major problem,” said a senior official, while acknowledging that general supply of PX had been tight. The company’s No1 660,000 tonne/year PTA unit at the same Ningbo site in eastern China was running at full capacity, said the other officials. Yisheng, through subsidiary Yisheng Dahua Petrochemical, also operates a 1.5m tonne/year PTA facility at Dalian in the northeast of the country. The plant is a joint venture between Yisheng and the Dahua group. The Dalian plant had restarted earlier this month after teething problems brought it down in March, following startup in January. It is now running at relatively low rates of around 50% of nameplate capacity and would gradually increase output in the next few months, said the officials.