Lyondell Announces Force Majeure Event

Effective May 30th, 2011, our Ethylene supplier declared Force Majeure due to a severe power outage at the Morris, IL complex.

BASF SE Declares Force Majeure

BASF SE declares Force Majeure for supplies of Butanediol and Butanediol Derivatives out of its production plants in Ludwigshafen.

BASF Declares Force Majeure on TDI

May 17, 2011

Dear Valued Customer,

The severe flooding of the lower Mississippi river and surrounding areas is
limiting raw materials from being delivered into our Geismar, Louisiana
production facilities.

As a result, BASF is declaring force majeure on all toluene diisocyanate
(Lupranate T80 and Lupranate 8020) products effective immediately.

Retroactive beginning May 1,2011, deliveries of products will be allocated on
a fair and reasonable basis utilizing the past 6 month (Nov 2010 -April 2011)
purchases for the base.

Your sales representative will be in touch with you to discuss the situation in
more detail.

We appreciate your patience as we work through this very difficult time.

PPG Industries Force Majeure Terminated

Effective May 3rd, 2011 PPG has terminated the Force Majeure for Liquid Caustic Soda.

Force Majeure in Asia: Asian spot Styrene, Ethylene prices firmer from early April levels

In Asia, spot styrene and ethylene costs recorded increases in the month of April with support from strong oil prices that continue to hover above US$100/bbl, as per Chemorbis.

Looking at spot figures, Asian styrene prices gained US$120/ton increases on FOB Korea basis when compared to the beginning of April, supported by firming oil prices, amid strong styrene demand coming from China. Meanwhile, shutdowns and lower operating rates also played a role in the rise seen on styrene prices.

South Korea’s LG Chem shut down three styrene plants for a planned turnaround, and withdrew offers from the spot market in March-April. Presently, these plants are reported to have restarted and running at full capacity.  However, since the company has just emerged from a turnaround, it is not expected to provide spot styrene to the market during May.

Meanwhile, Ellba-Eastern, a Shell and BASF joint venture, had declared force majeure on its 550,000 tpa styrene monomer/propylene oxide plant in Singapore, which was shut on March 22.  The plant was restarted in mid-April and is reportedly running at 60-80% of capacity. However, the force majeure remains in place as Shell hasn’t lifted the force majeure on the output from its ethylene cracker at Pulau Bukom.Additionally, Japan Asahi Kasei lowered their operating rates by 10% compared to March during April at their 710,000 tpa styrene plant while Taiyo Petrochemical in Japan also lowered their operating rates by 20% at their 370,000 tpa styrene plant to 80% capacity.

South Korean YNCC’s 285,000 tpa styrene plant was shut at the beginning of April for four weeks maintenance while Samsung Total’s 930,000 tpa styrene plant in Korea was down for a turnaround between April 6 and May 22. During the shutdown of the company’s No.1 and No.2 plants, 80,000 tons of output is expected to be lost. In the spot ethylene market, prices did not show much change on CFR Northeast Asia basis but they gained US$125/ton on CFR Southeast Asia basis with respect to the beginning of April.

By mid-April, spot ethylene prices firmed up significantly on the back of the supply issues triggered by Shell Singapore’s prolonged shutdown at their 800,000 tpa steam cracker, where they halted their operations on March 18 due to a compressor problem. The company had initially pronounced the restart date as April 10 but later it was postponed to mid-May.

This push back on the restart date intensified the buying interest in the region and caused prices to move up. However, this situation has shifted direction during this week as spot ethylene prices eased down by US$15/ton on week over week basis since most buyers have secured some additional materials.

Yet, the cracker shutdowns continue in Asia as ExxonMobil’s 900,000 tpa cracker was shut on March 8 for 9 week of maintenance. Meanwhile, Thai PTTCH plans to halt their operations at their 400,000 tpa ethylene plant in Thailand during the first half of this year for 48 days turnaround.

Enterprise Products Declares Force Majeure on Propylene

Enterprise Products Partners declared force majeure on polymer-grade propylene Wednesday due to feedstock concerns stemming from recent refinery outages in Texas, multiple market sources said.

The declaration could last through May, although no allocations were presently in effect, Enterprise said in an e-mail to customers.

Power outages idled the BP, Marathon, and Valero refineries in Texas City, Texas, on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, triggering a shelter-in-place declaration that lasted through mid-day Tuesday.

At least two refineries -- Valero's and Marathon's -- were reported to be in restart mode as of Tuesday afternoon, but it was unclear when all three would be running at full speeds.

Such uncertainty prompted Enterprise to declare the force majeure, according to sources.

Official confirmation from Enterprise was not immediately available. The Texas City refinery area is a key supplier of refinery-grade propylene to Enterprise's Mont Belvieu, Texas, propylene splitter complex.

Enterprise's declaration could provide further upward pressure to already record-high spot and contract propylene values, as RGP has been in very short supply.

The propylene spot market was reported mum in reaction to the news, with one participant reporting RGP being transacted at 90.75 cents/lb MtB pipe, up .25 from Tuesday's assessment by Platts. 

BP Declares Force Majeure on Acetic Acid

PPG Announces Force Majeure on Caustic Soda and PELS

Effective immediately , PPG Industries, Inc. is declaring a system-wide force majeure condition for all grades of liquid caustic and PELS beaded caustic soda shipped from its North American chlor-alkali system.

Honeywell Announces Force Majeure for Phenol

Honeywell Resins & Chemical’s facility at Hopewell, VA announces a force majeure due to unavailability of sufficient quantities of phenol.

Lyondell Announces VAM Force Majeure

Please read the following letter from Lyondell announcing force majeure on vinyl acetate monomers due to an impairment in the facilities of production of their supplier of carbon monoxide.

Dow announces 100% order control on oxygenated solvents.

Dow Declares Force Majeure on Ethlyeneamines

Shell Announces Force Majeure on Acetone due to Ike

DOW Force Majeure (IKE)

Shell Announces Force Majeure on Acetone due to Ike

Oxea Force Majeure (Ike)

Lyondell Force Majeure– Propylene Glycol Ethers and Acetates

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AkzoNobel Force Majuere (Ike)

Stepen Force Majeure (Ike)

Invista Force Majeure