Germany's Vestolit lifts force majeure on caustic soda and PVC

26 May 2011 15:42  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Vestolit has lifted force majeure on its supplies of caustic soda and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a source at the Germany-based company said on Thursday.

Specialty PVC producer Vestolit declared force majeure at its Marl, western Germany, units on 1 September 2010 after the plants were struck by lightning. The units have a nameplate capacity of 285,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda and 400,000 tonnes/year of PVC.

Unexpected and ongoing technical issues with its transformers left the declaration in place for longer than anticipated.

Improved utilisation rates in recent weeks allowed the company to lift force majeure on 23 May and the source added it was now in a position to honour all contractual obligations.

Meanwhile, US chemicals giant Dow Chemical confirmed its 1.79m tonne/year caustic soda plant in Stade, northern Germany, would restart as planned at the weekend, a company source said.

Dow also confirmed its four-week planned outage at Stade, Germany, went to plan, with restart scheduled for 28 or 29 May. During the outage contractual obligations have been fulfilled, the source added.

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By: Jane Massingham
+44 20 8652 3214

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