The explosion at Polimeri's petrochemicals site in Dunkirk, France, which forced the shutdown of steam cracker operations and closure of its two polyethylene plants there, was not expected to greatly impact PE supplies, a company source said Friday.
The explosion on October 21, the cause of which was still being investigated, led to flaring at the 380,000 mt/year capacity cracker, and a shutdown of the 250,000 mt/year linear low density and 180,000 mt/year LDPE plants, followed by a declaration of force majeure on ethylene and propylene supplies.
But, while the PE plants and cracker are now shut down for repairs, force majeure has not been declared on PE supplies, the source said.
"The startup is expected around mid-November, for the cracker and PE plants," the source said, adding "This will not have a major impact on our PE markets."
Polyethylene demand in Europe has been weak, as converters are reluctant to build stock in anticipation of further drops in prices and are tracing the behavior of Chinese converters, industry sources said this week.
