Polish chemical producer Synthos has begun an emergency shutdown of all units at its petrochemical complex in Kralupy, Czech Republic due to extreme flooding by the Vltava river, a company source said Monday.
"We are closing production of all units one by one today, so as to do it as smoothly as possible, due to the crisis situation with flooding," said the source. "The river going through Kralupy is overflowing and the depth of the water is extremely high. The power plant is flooded with water, so there is no steam."
The units affected include a 170,000 mt/year styrene monomer plant, a 30,000 mt/year GPPS plant, a 50,000 mt/year HIPS plant, a 80,000 mt/year polybutadiene plant, a 90,000 mt/year butadiene plant, a 160,000 cu m/year XPS plant, a 90,000 mt/year SBR plant and a 80,000 mt/year NDBR plant.
Synthos is considering declaring force majeure on all styrenics products on Tuesday, the source added, but this remains unconfirmed Monday.
Upstream, the Kralupy 3.927 million mt/year refinery owned by Ceska Rafinerska had already been shut on May 31 due to a malfunctioning fluid catalytic cracker. Ceska Rafinerska is majority owned by Unipetrol, itself majority controlled by Poland's PKN Orlen.
The Czech capital Prague was on high flood alert Monday as the Vltava river rose, flooding parts of the historic city center, according to AFP.
Schools and businesses closed and transportation systems were shut after torrential rains left at least six people dead and forced thousands from their homes across central Europe.
The Czech government declared a state of emergency Sunday, deploying 2,000 troops in its rescue drive as five people died, several were missing and over 6,000 evacuated from their homes, officials said.
