BASF, Eurochem start Europe butyl acetate shutdowns

LONDON (ICIS)--BASF’s 90,000 tonne/year Ludwigshafen butyl acetate (butac) unit and Eurochem’s 18,000 tonne/year Nevinnomyssk unit began routine shutdowns on 15 September as planned, sources close to the companies said.

BASF is carrying out a catalyst change at the German unit during the two-week outage.

Eurochem is carrying out routine maintenance at the Russian facility until 30 September.

Contractual obligations would be met during the planned outages, company sources said.

Prices for spot butyl acetate were assessed wider this week at €1,120-1,170/tonne ($1,474-1,539/tonne) FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe), according to data from ICIS. This reflected a €20/tonne drop at the low end from the previous week. The market was described as balanced by most sources.

($1 = €0.76)