(ICIS reported, Kuwait Aromatics’ (KARO) could raise operating rates at its 820,000 tonne/year paraxylene (PX) unit in Shuaiba to 100% as soon as the end of February or early-March, a company source said on Thursday.

“We’re experiencing some technical glitch at the moment but we’re looking into it already and we will ramp up operating rates in the near future,” he said.

The source added that the company had also lifted the force majeure (FM) on both PX and benzene supplies from 7 February and had already notified downstream purified terephathalic acid (PTA) makers.

KARO declared FM on supplies on 14 January after an unexpected outage at its aromatics facility which can also produce up to 393,000 tonnes/year of benzene.

The company subsequently restarted on 23-24 January at 60-65% of nameplate capacity and had maintained operating rates at such levels since, the source said.

Market sources told ICIS news that KARO was currently loading up to 30,000 tonnes of PX for mid-March arrival for delivery to customers in Asia.

Some of the other key aromatics producers in the Middle East include Saudi Basic Industries Corp, Iran-based NPC, Esfahan Petrochemical Co and Aromatics Oman.