UpdateSolVin, Arkema declare PVC forces majeures on cold weather

09 February 2012 17:54  [Source: ICIS news]

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LONDON (ICIS)--Arkema and SolVin have declared forces majeures on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production at facilities in France and Belgium because of cold weather conditions, sources at both companies said on Thursday.

SolVin's force majeure affects production of grades K70 and K57 produced at its Tavaux facility in France and all the commodity grades produced at the Jemeppe site in Belgium.

Cold weather started a week ago and worsened during the weekend, freezing outdoor lines and forcing the suspension of production.

"Stocks [for these grades] are now empty, so customers are experiencing some delays," the SolVin source said.

Production and supply of other grades, which are manufactured indoors, continue as usual.

"Such low temperatures are common for one or two days in winter, but not for so long," the source said.

Arkema was forced to declare force majeure on PVC production at its facility in Berre, southern France, because of the weather, a source at the French producer said.

"Upstream and downstream plants were frozen so we were obliged to declare force majeure," the source said.

Low winter temperatures have caused other outages across the European PVC market, though this could not be immediately confirmed.

Supply constraints have resulted in lower inventories across Europe and higher prices in the spot and export markets.

Export deals to the key Turkish market were done at $1,030/tonne FOB (free on board) NWE (northwest Europe) Export, up by $30/tonne from last week.

Spot business in northwest Europe was concluded at €800/tonne FD (free delivered) EU and above, up by €20-60/tonne from last week.

According to traders and distributors, European producers are not willing to sell large quantities because of lowering stocks and expectations of higher prices.

($1 = €0.75)

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By: Abache Abreu
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