Dow declares FM on glacial acrylic acid at Deer Park, Texas
10 March 2010 23:14 [Source: ICIS news]
HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Dow Chemical declared force majeure (FM) on glacial acrylic acid (GAA) produced at its Deer Park plant in Texas because of a mechanical failure, the global chemical producer said on Wednesday.
Dow said sales allocations would be implemented at less than 100%, but would not be more specific. The company specified neither the nature of the mechanical problem nor how long production might be interrupted.
The measure superseded current sales control on GAA, which has been in effect there since mid-December when a previous mechanical failure in another of the company’s acrylic acid production trains also prompted sales limits on Dow’s butyl acrylate (butyl-A) and ethyl acrylate (ethyl-A), the company added.
Contrary to some market chatter, the outage was unrelated to contract negotiations between Dow and the United Steelworkers, which were completed on Tuesday, said a Dow spokesperson.
A new four-year contract covering the union’s 325 hourly employees at the site was ratified after several weeks of talks. The previous three-year contact expired during the first week of March.
North American supply of GAA - used to make superabsorbent polymers, water treatment chemicals and paints and coatings - has been tightening since the December incident at Dow and an explosion at the American Acryl acrylic acid plant in Pasadena, Texas, on 9 December.
The American Acryl plant in Pasadena is a 50/50 joint venture with NA Industries, a subsidiary of Nippon Shokubai, and Arkema.
Beyond sales limits by those producers, BASF also put GAA and its acrylate esters on 100% allocation to ensure it could meet heightened demand after the Dow and American Acryl outages.
($1 = €0.74)
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