Shanxi Woneng Chemical has successfully resumed operations at its monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit in Linfen, Shanxi province, after completing a maintenance turnaround earlier this month.
According to a source in China, “The company is reported to have brought the unit back on stream around August 28, 2025, following a turnaround. The unit had been shut for maintenance on August 7, 2025. However, this information could not be independently confirmed with an official source.”
The Linfen facility, with a production capacity of 300,000 metric tons per year, is one of the important domestic producers contributing to China’s MEG supply, which is largely consumed in polyester fiber, PET resin, and film manufacturing. Market participants noted that the plant’s restart adds incremental supply to a market that has been grappling with oversupply pressures due to expanded Chinese production capacity and steady imports.
Traders observed that the outage’s relatively short duration limited its impact on regional pricing, as inventories remained comfortable throughout the maintenance period. However, with the unit now back in operation, additional availability could add further weight to an already bearish sentiment in Asia’s MEG market, where demand from downstream polyester sectors has struggled to gain momentum.
Industry observers added that the restart comes just ahead of September, a period when market participants typically anticipate some demand recovery tied to seasonal restocking in textiles and packaging. Whether this incremental consumption can absorb the additional MEG output remains to be seen, particularly with new capacities ramping up across China in 2025.
The return of Shanxi Woneng’s MEG unit underscores the steady reliability of Chinese producers in completing planned maintenance turnarounds, though it also highlights the ongoing challenge of balancing supply with weaker-than-expected demand fundamentals in the polyester chain.
