Braskem officials are still evaluating damage to a power facility at a chlor-alkali complex in Brazil last week and have no timeline on when operations will restart, a spokeswoman said Friday.
A fire at the power facility on January 15 forced Braskem to shut the chlor-alkali complex in Maceio, Alagoas state, the spokeswoman, Amanda Moscardini Alves, said in an email. The power facility is located in the chlor-alkali complex and provided electricity to run it. The fire did not affect the chlor-alkali plant, said.
"Inspections have not been finalized yet, therefore it was not possible to determine how long Maceio's plant will be off," Alves said.
The sudden outage prompted Braskem to issue a tender in US spot ethylene dichloride markets for three 13,000 dmt parcels -- a total of 39,000 dmt -- of EDC to be delivered February 10, February 15 and March 10, according to a copy of the tender obtained by S&P Global Platts.
One of those deals this week was heard done at $210/mt FOB USG, a 75% increase over the previous week's assessment of $120/mt FOB USG, according to S&P Global Platts data. Market sources said deals for the other two parcels also were done in the same range.
Chlor-alkali refers to production of chlorine and caustic soda. Chlorine combined with ethylene makes EDC, a precursor to polyvinyl chloride, which is used to make plastic pipes, window frames, vinyl siding and other plastics. Caustic soda, a by-product of chlorine production, is a key feedstock in aluminum and pulp and paper industries.
Braskem also was heard to have issued a tender for 30,000 dmt of caustic soda in spot markets as well. Alves did not confirm that tender and said the company was still evaluating inventory levels and required volumes to fulfill contracts.
