Sabic sees NAK4 cracker at Geleen, Holland back up Wed

16 August 2004 12:28  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Sabic EuroPetrochemicals (EPC) said Monday it hopes to resume production on Wednesday (18 August) from its 675 000 tonne/year NAK4 cracker at Geleen, Netherlands.

The cracker, one of two operated by Sabic EPC at Geleen, was shut on 10 August due to unspecified technical problems. 

Sabic declared force majeure on supplies of ethylene following the closure. A spokesman for Sabic said today he was unsure when the force majeure restriction might be lifted but output was now scheduled to recommence on Wednesday.

Production from Sabic's NAK3 cracker, which has a capacity of 575 000 tonne/year, is running normally, he confirmed.

The outage has occurred at a time of tight ethylene supply in Northwest Europe (NWE), according to global price reporting and market intelligence service ICIS-LOR*. Spot prices of ethylene were up Euro20/tonne to Euro750-775/tonne free delivered (FD) Northwest Europe (NWE) at the end of last week.

*ICIS-LOR is part of the same publishing group as CNI.

By: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214

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