Ecogreen plans turnaround at Batam fatty alcohols unit

19 November 2009 16:20  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Ecogreen will shut its fatty alcohol plant at Batam, Indonesia, in mid-January for routine maintenance, a source from the Singaporean producer said on Thursday.

The Batam plant, one of three fatty alcohol facilities operated by Ecogreen, has a capacity of 60,000 tonnes/year and was scheduled to be offline for approximately two weeks.

The source, a European marketer, did not expect the shutdown to have a large impact on the European market.

However, he noted that two other Asian producers were rumoured to be planning maintenance shutdowns, and said it was possible that the combined effect of three plant outages could tighten the market.

“It depends on the stock levels of the relevant parties in Europe,” he said.

Recent increases to raw material costs have put renewed strain on fatty alcohol producers’ profit margins.

A source at a European trader said earlier that if margins were squeezed further at least one producer was likely to drop out of the market.

“If prices go down in December and raw materials continue to go up, at least one producer will close,” the source said.

For more on Ecogreen’s Batam plant visit ICIS plants and projects
For more on fatty alcohols visit ICIS chemical intelligence
To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: Ross Yeo
+44 208 652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly