Borealis faces delayed start-up of Burghausen PP

22 November 2007 17:37  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Borealis’s new 330,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant at Burghausen in Germany is facing a delay in start-up, a company source said on Thursday.

 

The new unit was due to start at the end of November but has been delayed due to technical issues, the source said. “We don’t expect a long delay,” he added.

 

The company’s older 240,000 tonne/year PP unit was also out of action due to propylene constraints from OMV’s cracker at the site.

 

The cracker had been due to restart on 19 November after planned maintenance but OMV had postponed this and the unit remained offline, according to a company source.

 

Borealis hoped to restart production at the smaller PP unit next week. The plant had been on a planned shutdown for maintenance.

 

PP prices have stabilised in November after some initial erosion early month.

 

Several producers have made it clear that they will be targeting price increases for December PP, based on high feedstock costs, and the expectation of an increase in first-quarter propylene which would impact upon PP prices, they said.

 

November spot prices were down to €1,130/tonne ($1,687/tonne) FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe), while domestic gross prices remained above €1,200/tonne, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

 

PP producers in Europe include Basell, Borealis, INEOS Polyolefins, Total Petrochemicals, Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC), Repsol and Dow.

 

($1 = €0.67)

By: Linda Naylor
+44 20 8652 3214

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