China´s Hanbang Petrochemical Company achieved on-spec output at its new 600,000 m/year purified terephthalic acid plant late Tuesday and is currently operating the plant at 90% of capacity, a company source said Wednesday.

Construction on the plant, located in Jiangyin, eastern Jiangsu province, began construction in December 2007. It was scheduled to start up in the fourth quarter of 2010 but was delayed due to technical glitches. Part of the plant´s PTA output will be used by Chengxing Group´s Jiangyin Chenggold Packing Material Co., which has a 300,000 t/year PET bottle chip facility in Jiangyin. The rest of the PTA will be sold in the domestic market on a contract basis.

The plant has a 200,000 t storage tank for its paraxylene feedstock. With an annual PTA capacity of 600,000 t/year, Hanbang´s annual PX requirement would be around 400,000 t/year.

Hanbang is an 85:15 joint venture between Chengxing Group and Hanbon Petrochemical of Hong Kong. It is one of the 40 petrochemical projects to benefit from the Chinese government´s Yuan 500 billion ($73.2 billion) stimulus package.