Spring chlor-alkali maintenance season begins

04 February 2011 17:11  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--The traditional spring chlor-alkali maintenance season got underway this week, as INEOS ChlorVinyls became the first producer to begin its maintenance work, a company source confirmed on Friday.

The company took its chlor-alkali facility in Runcorn, UK, off line on 1 February for necessary maintenance. 

The site – with a nameplate capacity of 677,000 tonnes/year of chlorine, 763,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda and 105,000 tonnes/year of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – is expected to be down for one month.

The company will then take its Rafnes site, in Norway, down at the beginning of March in order to complete necessary maintenance, which will last a further month. The unit can produce up to 260,000 tonnes/year of chlorine and 293,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda, but has no PVC production.

European chlor-alkali producers traditionally take their facilities off line over the first quarter (Q1) and Q2 for planned maintenance and this year is no exception.

The Netherlands-based major chlor-alkali producer, AkzoNobel, will take its 633,000 tonne/year chlorine and 715,000 tonne/year caustic soda facility at Botlek, the Netherlands, down at the end of April for four weeks, according to a company source.

French chlor-alkali manufacturer Arkema plans to undertake maintenance at its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit at Lavera, France, in late March/early April. This could take four to five weeks, according to a company source, and would have an impact on the 341,000 tonne/year chlorine and 375,000 tonne/year caustic soda production at the site. VCM is an intermediate in PVC production

Dow also confirmed that it would take its 1.585m tonne/year chlorine and 1.786m tonne/year caustic soda site at Stade, Germany, off line in May for four weeks to complete necessary maintenance work.

Japanese PVC manufacturer Shin-Etsu was due to take its 450,000 tonne/year PVC facility at Pernis, in the Netherlands, off line at the end of March/beginning of April for a small outage.

German chlor-alkali producer Vinnolit confirmed that it was planning to undertake a six-day shutdown at its Knapsack facility in May, which would affect the 250,000 tonne/year chlorine, 170,000 tonne/year PVC and its 275,000 tonne/year caustic soda production.

Finally, PVC manufacturer LVM, part of the Belgium-based Tessenderlo Group, confirmed that it would undertake a short outage at its 225,000 tonne/year Beek unit in the Netherlands in March.

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For more on chlor-alkali, visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Stephanie Wilson
+44 20 8652 3214

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