DATE : 2017-11-21
SINGAPORE --Here is a plant status report:
Name: Shandong Yidali Chemical
Location: Shandong, China
Product: Methyl methacrylate (MMA)
Capacity: 40,000 tonnes/year
Event start: 19 November
Event finish: Unknown
Reason: Equipment trial
Comments: The facility began processing raw materials on 19 November, according to sources. The plant is likely to start MMA production at the end of month on smooth operations.
Source Icis News
DATE : 2017-11-17
Germany-headquartered chemicals major BASF's Antwerp acrylic acid (AA) facility is now back up and running, sources said this week.
This was said to be following technical problems that began at the facility at the end of September during a planned turnaround, sources have said.
DATE : 2017-11-15
Ascend Performance Materials has lifted its force majeure declaration on US acrylonitrile (ACN), according to a market source on Wednesday.
Ascend closed its ACN facility at Chocolate Bayou, Texas on 27 August amid the impact of Hurricane Harvey on production in the US Gulf region.
The plant has 590,000 tonnes/year of ACN capacity.
Ascend began the process of restarting the facility in early September but faced a problem with one of its ammonia pipelines as it looked to ramp up production.
The plant is heard to be running at high rates as it continues to increase production.
Major ACN producers in the US include Ascend Performance Materials, Cornerstone Chemical and INEOS Nitriles.
Source Icis News
DATE : 2017-11-15
BASF has declared force majeure on production of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA) at its Ludwigshafen facility in Germany, sources said on Wednesday.
There was no direct confirmation from BASF at the time of writing.
While several sources confirmed the news, one buyer said the producer had unexpectedly experienced technical problems which resulted in a prolonged shutdown period. BASF declared force majeure on 2-EHA after having difficulties in the start up of the plant after maintenance, according to the same buyer.
The buyer said that in a letter from BASF to its customers, the producer said the declaration would be in place until further notice.
One trader said: "2-EHA is really short now, we received several unexpected spot enquiries."
The buyer said the market for 2-EHA has been tight for the past month and said this could be attributed to the shutdown at Ludwigshafen.
"The market has been dealing with it for the past few weeks," the buyer said. "And the market is dropping away now for December, but with this now it could very well be that demand remains stable and you don't see the slowdown for the holiday period." The buyer added that the potential impact would depend very much on the duration of the declaration.
2-EHA is used in the manufacture of paints and adhesives.
Source Icis News
DATE : 2017-11-03
Arkema has shifted volume constraints on its US acrylic acid and acrylate esters to 100% sales control from previous force majeure (FM) status, the France-based petrochemical producer said on Friday.
Affected products include glacial acrylic acid (GAA), butyl acrylate (butyl-A), ethyl acrylate (ethyl-A), methyl acrylate (methyl-A) and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA).
Arkema lifted force majeure on its acrylates just before it announced the new sales controls.
The company did not indicate how long the sales controls would be in effect, but said in a letter to customers that it is experiencing strong demand.
Arkema declared force majeure on its acrylates on 31 August, stemming from production and transportation problems arising from Hurricane Harvey, which struck the US Gulf coast on 25 August. Arkema shut down its American Acryl plant in Bayport, Texas – a joint venture with Nippon Shokubai subsidiary NA Industries – just ahead of Harvey's landfall.
Although the plant restarted in September, the precautionary shutdown and other producers' outages during and after the storm tightened supply throughout the domestic market in an environment of steady, healthy buying interest.
October's acrylates increases moved the GAA range, for example, to 0.98-1.06/lb ($2,161-2,337/tonne) FD (free delivered), as assessed by ICIS.
Source Icis News