Mexichem partially restarts Colombia PVC plant

19 November 2010 17:36  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--A Mexichem subsidiary restarted production of emulsion polyvinyl chloride (PVC) this week at its plant in Cartagena, Colombia, following a shutdown caused by flooding from Hurricane Tomas earlier this month, local industry sources said on Friday.

Production of suspension PVC was scheduled to resume on 22 November at the plant of the subsidiary, Mexichem Resinas Colombia.

However, the timeframe for the restart of PVC copolymer production, which suffered the most from the flooding, was not clear, the sources said.

Colombian processors caught with low inventories after the hurricane were asking for resin from Venezuela, said sources close to Venezuela’s PVC producer, Pequiven.

Pequiven is considering the requests after it restarted its PVC plant in mid October, following a 45-day turnaround, and is focused on rebuilding PVC stocks and fulfilling Venezuela’s requirements.

Colombia’s domestic and export PVC offers remained notionally stable due to the plant shutdown, despite earlier announcements of $30-50/tonne (€22-37/tonne) increases for November exports.

Sources in Colombia said December PVC pricing was being assessed. Upward pressure was felt from rising feedstock costs and the firming trend in other regions.

However, it was too early to establish December pricing, because PVC production was not fully normalised to supply domestic and export requirements, according to the sources.

Pipe-grade PVC prices in Colombia were assessed at $1,140-1,160/tonne DEL (delivered), according to ICIS.

($1 = €0.73)

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By: Ron Coifman
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