Dow's Schkopau caustic soda back up at reduced rates

25 September 2009 12:18  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Dow’s caustic soda facility at Schkopau in Germany is back on stream following maintenance but operating at reduced rates due to technical issues, a company source said on Friday.

“The plant is back but it is operating at reduced rates because of one or two technical issues,” the source said.

“We are hoping to be back up and running by next week as stocks are the lowest they can be and demand has certainly improved over September.”

The plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 240,000 tonnes/year according to ICIS Plants & Projects, had closed for routine but major maintenance work at the end of July and had expected to be back up at the beginning of September.

The closure had coincided with numerous other planned outages and low operating rates. Resulting tighter supply was widely considered to be the major factor behind the recent drive for price increases of €80-85/DMT (dry metric tonne) ($118-125/DMT) in the caustic soda quarterly contract market and improving values in the spot market.

($1 = €0.68)

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By: Stephanie Wilson
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