May average daily chlorine production in Europe falls 7.3%

09 June 2011 16:33  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Average daily chlorine production in the EU plus Norway and Switzerland fell by 7.3% in May from the previous month, while inventories of co-product caustic soda decreased by 8.3%, industry body Euro Chlor said on Thursday.

Average daily output of chlorine was 25,470 tonnes in May compared with 27,487 in April. On a year-on-year basis, May output was 9.5% lower.

The region produced 789,576 tonnes of chlorine in May compared with 824,602 tonnes in April.

Average capacity utilisation fell by 5.8 percentage points from April to 73% in May.

Caustic soda stocks reached 234,405 tonnes, an 8.3% decrease from April. This was the lowest level of inventories recorded in 2011. Year-on-year, stocks were 26,265 tonnes below May 2010.

 

EU 27 + Norway/Switzerland

Chlorine production & capacity utilisation

Month	Production (tonnes)			Capacity Utilisation (%)
	2010	2011	% change	2010	2011
January	808,563	854,826	+5.7%	74.7%	79.0%
February	786,984	803,931	+2.2%	80.5%	82.3%
March	845,597	867,472	+2.6%	78.2%	80.2%
April	834,652	824,602	-1.2%	79.7%	78.8%
May	872,472	789,576	-9.5%	80.6%	73.0%

 

Caustic soda stocks (tonnes)

	2010	2011
January	275,312	269,129
February	295,002	279,512
March	255,758	241,006
April	246,044	255,642
May	260,670	234,405

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By: Jane Massingham
+44 20 8652 3214

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