DATE: 2013-07-05 

German producer Evonik’s butadiene (BD) unit at Marl is on track to restart around 12 July following planned maintenance, a company source said on Friday. The unit, which has the capacity to produce 220,000 tonnes/year of BD, was taken off-line in mid-june.

The restart will signal the end of the European spring maintenance season.

Previous maintenance shutdowns have included the BD units at Moerdijk in the Netherlands (Shell), Wesseling in Germany (LyondellBasell) and Ravenna in Italy (Versalis).

Having this capacity back on-line is likely to add bearish pressure to a very weak market burdened by burgeoning supplies on the back of weak global demand.

SOURCE Icis News