Polimeri Europa makes further attempts to restart Dunkirk PE plant

LONDON (ICIS)--Polimeri Europa is struggling to restart its polyethylene (PE) production site at Dunkirk, France, following a planned shutdown that began at the end of August, a source with the major PE producer confirmed on Wednesday.

The plant's restart has already been delayed by several days because of technical problems, the source said.

“Every day this week we have expected production to restart but it hasn’t happened yet,” said the source. “There are no major problems, though. It should be back [on stream] soon.”

Polimeri Europa's production capacity at the site, where there is also a naphtha cracker, is 200,000 tonnes/year of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and 140,000 tonnes/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

LDPE availability in Europe has become tight over the past few weeks and this week is trading in some regions at close to €1,300/tonne ($1,806/tonne) FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) on a net basis.

Most sources quoted prices slightly below this. The gap between LDPE and LLDPE has widened considerably, with low-end net LLDPE prices now reported at €1,100/tonne FD NWE.

($1 = €0.72)