Eastman restart at Texas cracker delayed to mid-March

03 March 2010 14:32  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--The restart of Eastman Chemical’s cracker site at Longview, Texas, has been delayed to mid-March after unexpected equipment problems during an attempted restart late last week, the US chemicals major said on Tuesday.

“Based on current information, the company expects to have the smaller of the two crackers [at Longview] online by mid-March,” Eastman said.

The larger cracker was expected online before the end of March, it said.

Eastman had planned to restart the site last weekend after a power outage resulting in a shutdown at Longview.

However, during restart operations late last week, an unexpected equipment breakage connected to one of the two operating cracking units at the site delayed startup and was interrupting production of certain products and intermediates, it said.

The crackers have reported capacities of 141,000 tonnes/year and 358,000 tonnes/year, respectively.

Based on the current timeline for restarting the crackers, the company expected the impact of the outage on first-quarter 2010 earnings per share to be between $0.20 and $0.25, it said.

This impact was expected to be mostly offset by higher than forecasted sales volume and operating margin, it said.

“We take our commitment to being a reliable supplier to our customers seriously and are working hard to resolve this unusual situation and restore supply as soon as possible,” said Ron Lindsay, Eastman executive vice president for performance polymers and chemical intermediates.

“We recognise the impact this outage is currently having on our customers, and we deeply appreciate the value they place on our long-term track record as a reliable supplier.”

($1 = €0.74)

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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