Dow begins restart of Texas cracker, ethylene price pressure likely

12 August 2010 18:45  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Dow Chemical said on Thursday it has begun the start-up process of its LHC-7 Freeport cracker in Texas, a move that could potentially place more pressure on US ethylene prices.  

The 612,000 tonne/year unit was taken off line on 14 July, following an outage at a steam turbine.

The company has a second cracker in Freeport, LHC-8, with 1m tonnes/year of ethylene capacity.

US ethylene for August last traded on Tuesday at 34.50-35.00 cents/lb ($761-772/tonne, €594-602/tonne), down from 36.50-37.00 cents/lb last week amid improving supply.

Market participants said the start-up of Dow’s LHC-7 cracker was likely to put more pressure on the monomer.

Ethylene for August was bid at 32.00 cents/lb on Thursday with no offers.

($1 = €0.78)

For more on Dow Chemical visit ICIS company intelligence
For more on ethylene visit ICIS chemical intelligence
To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: William Lemos
+1 713 525 2653

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