Malaysia's state-owned Petronas is facing a 1½-month shutdown at its 1.65mn t/yr methanol line in Labuan following an outage.
The plant is due to restart in early February after being forced to shut down from last weekend because of issues with a reactor.
The impact on supplies from the unit is unclear. But supplies in southeast Asia are likely to be limited if the producer is unable to cover its position.
Petronas is the largest producer in southeast Asia and a key supplier to all major markets in the region.
By Mahua Chakravarty