DATE : 2015-04-22
Evonik’s new 100,000 tonnes/year butadiene (BD) unit in Antwerp, Belgium, is in the start-up phase, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.
“Our butadiene unit in Antwerp is not operational yet. We are now in the start-up phase. We aim to start the production soon,” the spokesman said without elaborating further.
The new BD unit had been planned to come online some time during the second quarter of 2015.
There is much interest among European BD market players as to when exactly this and two other new BD units will come onstream this year to determine supply and demand balances.
Although the market is currently constrained by supply issues, these are resolving and the outlook for any structural improvement in demand is flat.
The status of OMV's new capacity BD unit in Burghausen, Germany, is unclear – production here is planned also for the second quarter, while MOL-TVK’s new unit in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary is expected later in the third quarter.
SOURCE Icis News