DATE : 2014-06-18

 

BASF’s new 155,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) extraction unit in Antwerp, Belgium, will start up in the third quarter this year, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

“The butadiene project in Antwerp will be completed in time and is planned to start operation in Q3 2014,” the company spokesman said.

BASF already operates a 105,000 tonne/year BD unit in Mannheim, Germany.

BASF announced the project in July 2012 and at the time said the decision had been made in light of the increasingly tight supplies of butadiene on global markets.

The current BD market however is somewhat less than inviting – supply and demand are well balanced but at the same time the market is viewed as soft with limited structural improvement thought likely for the remainder of 2014.

The new BASF plant is one of a handful of BD projects announced for Europe.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, LyondellBasell expanded BD capacity at its extraction unit in Wesseling, Germany, by 40% to 238,000 tonnes/year. Evonik’s new 100,000 tonnes/year extraction unit also in Antwerp, is due to come onstream in the second quarter 2015.

SOURCE Icis News