Formosa US polymer units in Texas restarting after outage

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Formosa Plastics is in the process of restarting its polymer plants and other derivative units in Point Comfort, Texas that were shut down before the 4th July holiday because of power outage, a spokesman said on Friday.

Formosa spokesman Steve Rice said not all of the polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) units have been restarted that were shut down on 24 June.

“Some are (restarted), and some are not,” Rice said, “that’s all I can tell you.”

Formosa declared force majeure on all PE and PP produced at the complex because of the power outage.

The complex has two PP units, each with capacity of 430,000 tonnes/year; a 650,000 tonne/year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit; 300,000 tonne/year for monotheylene glycol (MEG); 910,000 tonnes/year of chlorine and 1m tonne/year of caustic soda, among other chemicals, according to the ICIS plants and projects database.

Rice said polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and chlor-alkali plants had been restarted, though other sources close to the company said they were running at reduced rates.

Formosa restarted two crackers at the complex over the holiday weekend, market sources said earlier this week.

Rice said the producer planned on getting other units restarted this weekend.