CNOOC Shell Polyethylene Plant Halts Production; Reason, Resumption Time Unclear

CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Limited(CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals, CSPC)Production at its polyethylene (PE) facilities has been suspended.CNOOC and Shell’s joint venture, located in the Daya Bay Petrochemical Zone in Huizhou, Guangdong, is a major polyethylene production base in China. Its HDPE and LLDPE products are widely supplied to downstream plastic markets in South China and across the country. The current shutdown of its PE unit will directly affect the domestic spot supply of polyethylene, with the market closely monitoring the reasons for the outage, the maintenance schedule, and the expected restart date.

On September 10, LG Chem and TK Chemical, a subsidiary of SM Group, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the development of eco-friendly biodegradable materials (PBAT) and business cooperation at the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul. The two companies plan to sign a formal contract within the year and aim to construct a PBAT production line and commence product manufacturing in South Korea in the second half of 2022. Specific details such as production capacity are undisclosed per the agreement. TK Chemical plans to build the PBAT production line leveraging its stable operational capabilities in PET polyester facilities.

ExxonMobil’s offers for China’s main ports rose this week: the mainstream duty-free Singapore-origin metallocene grade was quoted at $1,395 per ton for September shipment. Actual transactions are subject to firm deals.

On September 1, 2026 (Netherlands time), the EU-funded project ReBioCycle announced its latest findings: polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastic can be recovered from mixed plastic waste and reprocessed into recycled PLA of quality equivalent to virgin material. TotalEnergies Corbion, as an industrial partner, participated in the project and was responsible for a key step in the recycling chain—repolymerizing the recovered lactic acid into high-quality PLA. The project confirmed that PLA can be effectively separated from mixed waste streams using existing sorting technologies, then chemically depolymerized back into lactic acid monomers, and finally repolymerized into high-quality PLA with performance identical to that of virgin material.

On September 1, Avantium N.V. announced that Swiss masterbatch company Sukano AG has signed a capacity reservation agreement for releaf® (PEF). This agreement secures Sukano’s access to PEF production capacity from Avantium’s future industrial-scale plant, marking an escalation of their partnership from joint masterbatch development in 2022 to a formal capacity reservation arrangement.