Released on 11/12/12

US ethylene prices rose on Tuesday amid news that BASF TOTAL Petrochemical’s Port Arthur cracker in Texas was off line as a result of an unplanned outage.

The company has 934,000 tonnes/year of ethylene capacity at the site. The cracker is a joint venture between BASF and Total.

It was unclear how long the unit will be down, sources said.

A BASF TOTAL spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US ethylene for December traded at 54.25 cents/lb ($1,196/tonne, €921/tonne), up from 53.50 cents/lb the previous day.

Source ICIS News