Europe Dec chlorine output falls 3.3%, caustic soda stocks down

12 January 2012 15:50  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Average European daily chlorine production in December fell by 3.3% from November 2011, while inventories of co-product caustic soda decreased by 12.6% in the same period, industry body Euro Chlor said on Thursday.

Average daily production of chlorine for the region comprising the EU27, Norway and Switzerland, stood at 24,642 tonnes in December, down from 25,475 tonnes in November. Caustic soda stocks in December were at 233,029 tonnes, down from 266,600 tonnes in November.

Euro Chlor's year-on-year figures showed that average daily chlorine production was 5.5% lower than in December 2010, while caustic soda stocks were 10,664 tonnes below the December 2010 level of 243,693 tonnes.

Chlorine capacity utilisation in December stood at 71.3%, down from 73.7% in the previous month. There has been a steady decline since June 2011, when operating rates were at 83.0%.

Chlorine production & capacity utilisation

Month	Production (tonnes)			Capacity Utilisation (%)
	2010	2011	% change	2010	2011
January	808,563	860,558	+6.4%	74.7%	80.4%
February	786,984	808,851	+2.8%	80.5%	83.6%
March	845,597	872,912	+3.2%	78.2%	81.5%
April	834,652	832,047	-0.3%	79.7%	80.3%
May	872,472	795,252	-8.9%	80.6%	74.3%
June	843,513	860,327	+2.0%	80.6%	83.0%
July	854,731	887,702	+3.9%	79.0%	82.9%
August	873,015	831,385	-4.8%	80.7%	77.6%
September	764,415	798,408	+4.4%	73.0%	77.0%
October	809,582	796,446	-1.6%	74.8%	74.4%
November	836,890	764,241	-8.7%	79.9%	73.7%
December	808,350	763,911	-5.5%	74.7%	71.3%

 

Caustic soda stocks (tonnes)

	2010	2011
January	275,312	271,668
February	295,002	281,708
March	255,758	243,406
April	246,044	260,459
May	260,670	236,790
June	252,124	266,265
July	238,609	251,382
August	246,001	259,528
September	224,331	248,558
October	221,109	242,103
November	216,159	266,600
December	243,693	233,029

($1 = €0.79)

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By: Abache Abreu
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