Oxea plans oxo-alcohols shutdown at Texas plant - sources

22 February 2010 23:09  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Oxea has scheduled a planned turnaround of the oxo-alcohols unit at its Bay City plant in Texas from 28 April through 21 May, a market source said on Monday.

The source said the mandatory shutdown for propylene pipeline hydro-testing and other reliability issues was required by regulators. Oxea's last planned shutdown there for such issues was in July 2006, the source said.

An Oxea official would not comment on the turnaround.

The source said the shutdown would cover all oxo-alcohols products, including butyl acetate (butac), butanol, butyraldehyde and propanol, involving a capacity loss of 30,000 tonnes. The company has a sales control in place and is building inventory to meet demand, the source said.

A buyer who had learned of the shutdown said orders from outside customers had also prompted the sales control. The buyer said butac supplies would tighten quickly if there were any stumbles with the restart.

Oxea's Bay City unit is one of three US butac plants. The others are operated by Dow Chemical in Seadrift, Texas, and by Eastman Chemical in Kingsport, Tennessee.

The butac distributor price range for the week ended 19 February was 75-80 cents/lb ($1,654-1,764/tonne or €1,207-1,288/tonne), according to global chemical intelligence service ICIS pricing. Contract prices were 70-74 cents/lb and spot FOB (free on board) rates were 65-70 cents/lb.

($1 = €0.73)

For more on Oxea's Bay City, Texas, plant visit ICIS plants and projects
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By: Lane Kelley
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