Elenac to resurrect styrene plant

31 July 2000 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Elenac, the 50:50 BASF/Shell partnership, is to bring back onstream temporarily its styrene plant at Wesseling, Germany. The plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 420 000 tonne/year, was mothballed last year when BASF and Shell's Basell joint venture started up a new 550 000 tonne/year styrene facility at Moerdijk, the Netherlands.

A BASF spokesman said that a startup date had not yet been decided but it will supply styrene exclusively to BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany, to replace lost capacity during the company's modernisation of the site's ethylbenzene and styrene plants.

BASF also has a supply deal with Spain's Repsol for 200 000 tonne/year to support the Ludwigshafen project but startup of the new 340 000 tonne/year styrene plant in Tarragona is delayed because of technical problems.

According to an industry source, Repsol has mechanical problems in the ethylbenzene purification column, which it expects to have resolved by August with commercial production expected during the first half of August.

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