SABIC restarts Spain BPA/PC after turnaround

24 April 2008 16:38  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--SABIC Innovative Plastics resumed normal bisphenol A (BPA) and polycarbonate (PC) production at its Cartegena site in Spain this week, following a three-week maintenance turnaround, said a company source on Thursday.

The seller said that the BPA and PC lines were successfully restarted earlier in the week and operating rates have been ramped up since then.

The site has a capacity of 340,000 tonnes/year of BPA and 260,000 tonnes/year of PC.

The source said it was still in a favourable supply situation despite the outage, noting that this was counterbalanced by the fact that it had reduced its export activity to Asia.

Softer prices and market fundamentals in Asia combined with dollar weakness were discouraging European producers from exporting to the region.

Asian prices were last assessed down $40-50/tonne (€25-32/tonne) at $1,800-1,840/tonne CFR (cost and freight) NE Asia, by global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

($1 = €0.63)

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Author: Heidi Finch
+44 20 8652 3214

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