Some Houston-area and far southeast Texas steam crackers and derivative plants that shut down for Hurricane Harvey continued working to restart on Thursday while others remained shut for ongoing damage assessments, companies said.
ExxonMobil had initiated restart of the chemical plant at its chemical and refining complex in Beaumont, a spokesman said Thursday. ExxonMobil had previously disclosed that it was restarting its 1 million mt/year polyethylene plant at Beaumont, but Thursday's statement widened to include the entire plant. ExxonMobil also operates a an 827,000 mt/year cracker at that complex.
UK-based Ineos also was restarting its two Chocolate Bayou steam crackers south of Houston in Alvin, a spokesman said. The company had "recommenced operations and is working to return production capacity to normal levels," spokesman Charles Saunders said in an email Thursday of the plants, each with capacity of 875,000 mt/year.
At the peak of Harvey's assault on the Texas coast, more than 60% of US ethylene capacity and roughly a third of US polyethylene capacity was shut down. Some plants were operating at unspecified reduced rates, like ExxonMobil's 2.1 million mt/year Baytown complex and BASF's joint-venture 900,000 mt/year cracker in waterlogged Port Arthur. Others remained shut as Harvey impact assessments continued.
DuPont's 680,000 mt/year cracker in Orange, just west of the Louisiana state line in far southeast Texas, remained shut with inconsistent access to electric power as crews assessed the plant. Mike Hiteshew, global digital marketing leader for DuPont, said the cracker still has standing water and some nearby roadways remain flooded.
In addition, many emergency responders' eyes have shifted to Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm that devastated the Caribbean island of St. Martin and was headed for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, he said.
"With Irma bearing down on Florida, it's difficult to find things like generators and travel trailers that have been diverted there," Hiteshew said.
PRODUCTION
* ExxonMobil's restart of its polyethylene plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas, was progressing, a spokesman said Thursday. The plant produces 230,000 mt/year of high density polyethylene and 800,000 mt/year of linear low density polyethylene. The site is also home to 1.3 million mt/year of new polyethylene capacity slated to start up before the end of the third quarter.
* Beaumont city officials said one of two water pump stations knocked out by severe flooding from Harvey came back online and was undergoing testing by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Resumption of consistent running water helps the industrial plants, which need it to make steam for use in production.
* Dow Chemical had no timetable on the restart of its operations in Seadrift, Texas, about 50 miles northwest of where Harvey came ashore August 25 as a Category 4 storm, a spokesman said Thursday. Dow's Freeport, Texas, complex was operational, he said.
* Shell on Thursday had no update on its Deer Park refinery and chemical complex, which has 836,364 mt/year of ethylene capacity. "They are still assessing the complex," a spokesman said.
PRICING
* US polymer-grade propylene for September deliveries rose 0.75 cent to a five-month high Thursday, assessed at 44-44.5 cents/lb FD USG. Spot refinery-grade propylene jumped 1.25 cents to 32.50-33 cents/lb FD USG on a three- to 30-day basis, also a five-month high. US spot ethylene for prompt- and forward-month delivery was 0.375 cent higher at a four-month high with the prompt month assessed at 29.625-30.125 cents/lb FD USG and the forward month at 30.125-30.625 cents/lb FD USG.
In polymers, spot polyethylene export assessments were mostly stable week on week amid limited activity. High-density blowmolding was at $1,212/mt (55 cents/lb), up $11 week on week and $121 since August 23, as PE pricing was the highest since late Q1-early Q2 2017. Spot polypropylene for export was stable at $1,234/mt (56 cents/lb) FAS Houston, stable day on day and week on week at near five-month highs. US ethylene dichloride was assessed at $170-$180/mt FOB USG, stable week on week, as firming feedstock prices and production outages helped resist the pull of stable-to-softer Asian pricing. No deals were heard on the week as forces majeure and plant outages continued in Harvey's aftermath. US vinyl chloride monomer was assessed at $720-$730/mt FOB USG, $5 higher week on week, tracking gains in downstream polyvinyl chloride export prices.
In aromatics, US Gulf Coast MTBE fell 4.41 cents to be assessed at 198.78 cents/gal FOB USG. Market activity was thin, with no firm bids, offers or trades seen. September toluene was assessed up 1 cent at 251 cents/gal FOB USG, seeing higher bids and offers at 250-270 cents/gal. October toluene was assessed at 248 cents/gal FOB USG, maintaining its 3-cent discount to September as bids and offers were muted.
LOGISTICS
* Ports in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange remained open with a 34-foot draft limit and a slightly lower air draft of 132 feet under the Martin Luther King Bridge in Port Arthur on Thursday. The Sabine Pilots, which navigate vessels to and from those ports, said that although opened late Tuesday to vessel traffic for the first time since August 28, strong currents continued to be "the biggest short term problem."
* The Houston Ship Channel increased its 40-foot draft limit to 42 feet up to Baytown, and then to 41 feet from there to Shell Deer Park. The waterway's normal draft limit is 45 feet. The Port of Freeport maintained its 38-foot draft limit.
* Union Pacific had restored nearly all routes knocked out of service by Harvey, cutting miles out of service from 1,750 on August 28 to 50 on Thursday, the company said in a presentation to customers. Three of five bridges affected remained shut for repairs.
* BNSF said Thursday it had restored service to all subdivisions affected by Harvey in southeast Texas, including those in the Beaumont area. The carrier said track and signal work was ongoing in some areas, and transit times could be longer than usual until operations returned to normal.
