Basell delays Wesseling, Germany hdPE start-up to mid-2004

21 December 2001 10:42  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Basell expects to start up its new 320 000 tonne/year pipe-grade high density polyethylene (hdPE) unit in Wesseling, Germany around mid-2004, some six months later than the originally planned date of Q4 2003.

A spokesman for the European polyolefins producer said Friday that the delay was not related to market conditions, as Basell is still expecting 6-7%/year growth in the west European pipe market. Growth will be spurred by the replacement of old pipe infrastructure.

Basell announced the construction of the new plant in June last year. It said at the time that the world-scale unit would produce hdPE pipe grades in black, blue and orange-yellow - using the advanced cascade process, the latest generation of the Hostalen slurry technology.

The company has no other polyethylene (PE) capacity expansions plans at present. It has just expanded its ethylene capacity at Wesseling, adding 40 000 tonne/year of output to take the capacity of the No 6 cracker to 750 000 tonne/year.

By: John Baker
+44 20 8652 3214

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