Thailand's Bangkok Synthetics (BST) has halted feedstock supply, a source close to the company said Wednesday, in the wake of the weekend fire that killed 12 at its facility at Map Ta Phut, Rayong.
In addition, the company's subsidiary BST Elastomers on Tuesday had declared force majeure on butadiene rubber and styrene-butadiene-rubber production. BST Tuesday declared force majeure on MTBE production, saying there would not likely be any shipments of that product for a month. Saturday's fire and explosion occurred while workers were cleaning up a production line with toluene.
BST currently estimates all operations will remain offline "at least one month," the source said Wednesday, cautioning that the estimate is preliminary and the accident is under investigation. Asked how the company was handling supply of feedstocks, such as crude C4, the source said supplies had been ceased as well, but did not disclose whether force majeure had been declared to stop the supplies.
"We cease all activity. We stopped all supply activity. We informed suppliers and customers we had to stop," the source said.
Crude C4 is a feedstock for butadiene production, which is used to make synthetic rubber and other products.
Other units at the BST plant include a 140,000 mt/year butadiene unit, 55,000 mt/year MTBE unit, 35,000 mt/year butene-1 unit, 55,000 mt/year butane LPG unit, and 40,000 my/year C4 raffinate (isobutylene) unit.
BST Elastomers operates a SBR plant with a design capacity of 72,000 mt/year and a BR plant with capacity of 55,000 mt/year. The SBR plant is expected to be shut for two months, May 5-July 5, while the BR plant will be shut for six months from May 5-November 5, BSTE added in a letter to customers.
