Corrected: INEOS plans April shutdown at Cologne PO plant

12 March 2008 17:37  [Source: ICIS news]

Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined "INEOS plans April shutdown at Cologne PO plant" dated 12 March, please read in the first paragraph ...INEOS Oxides... instead of ...INEOS Olefins’... and in the sixth paragraph ...INEOS Oxides... instead of ...INEOS Olefins... A corrected story follows.

 

LONDON (ICIS news)--INEOS Oxides’ propylene oxide (PO) plant in Cologne, Germany, will enter a maintenance turnaround at the end of April, confirmed a company source on Wednesday.

 

The shutdown at the plant, which had a capacity of 210,000 tonnes/year, was expected to last approximately four days.

 

The seller said that contracts would be covered, noting that stocks would be built up in advance. However, the source speculated that spot supplies would be difficult to obtain during April due to the forthcoming spate of PO turnarounds in Europe and the US.

 

During this period, LyondellBasell and Bayer's joint-venture propylene oxide (PO)/styrene monomer (SM) plant at Maasvlakte in the Netherlands was also expected to undergo routine maintenance.

 

The unit, which has a rated PO capacity of 285,000 tonnes/year and SM capacity of 640,000 tonnes/year, was due to go down in the second half of March for approximately six to eight weeks, according to market participants. However, this was not confirmed at source.

 

This turnaround was likely to coincide with Dow’s US outage at its PO facility at Freeport, Texas, which was scheduled to start at the end of March. The shutdown was due to last a few weeks and would reduce PO exports to Europe.

 

PO market players include Shell, Dow, INEOS Oxides, BASF, Repsol, Cognis, Chemogas and Emsland.

 

By: Heidi Finch
+44 20 8652 3214

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