Two firms halt oxo-alcohols in Europe

30 January 2006 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

OXO-ALCOHOLS production at BASF’s Ludwigshafen complex in Germany and Perstorp’s Stenungsund site in Sweden ground to a halt last week, sources at the two companies said.

BASF halted its n-butyraldhyde production on January 23 due to extreme cold and was forced to stop production of butanols, butyl acetate and butyl glycols due to lack of feedstock, according to a BASF source.

“The plant is only likely to restart mid-end next week,” the source said last week. “We have all our downstream products on strict allocation, including contractual quantities, and have no product for the spot market.”

BASF’s 450,000 metric ton-per-year plant at Ludwigshafen has only just started up after a major debottlenecking program in January.

Perstorp also reported an unplanned outage last week of butanols and 2 ethyl hexanol (2EH). The units had gone down on last Monday and were restarted on last Wednesday, but failed again by the end of the day, said a company source. Production was not expected to restart before Sunday, January 29, added the source.

Perstorp has the capacity to produce 80,000 tons per year of butanols and 120,000 tons of 2EH at Stenungsund. Dioctyl phthalate (DOP) production at the site has been reduced due to problems with the supply of 2EH feedstock.

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