BP PLC and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec Corp., are in talks to expand a Sinopec unit in eastern China to meet the country’s growing need for purified terephthalic acid. The companies are studying the technical and financial aspects of adding a new unit to produce PTA at Sinopec’s Yangzi Petrochemical Corp. in Jiangsu province. PTA is a feedstock for polyester fibres. The new unit would have an annual capacity of 400,000 tons and would utilise BP technology. Last year, the government approved Sinopec’s proposal to expand Yangzi’s PTA capacity to 1 million tons/year from 600,000 tons/year without foreign investment. However, Sinopec now considers foreign investment and technology vital to the project.
