European Commodity Plastics Markets Tightening

The European market for polypropylene is tightening noticeably, with three companies declaring force majeure within a short space of time.

LyondellBasell is the latest company to take a PP plant offline. On July 7 it informed customers that due to a blockage in a polymerization reactor its facility at Carrington in the UK will be down until mid-July, with a return to full run not foreseen before August. The outage affects all grades.

Due to what it called "an unforeseen breakdown of the plant's extruder", Basell Orlen Polyolefins, a joint venture of LyondellBasell and Total, on June 20 declared force majeure for PP from the Plock, Poland, site.

On June 26, Total informed customers for PP from its Feluy, Belgium, site that one of its three lines was down, due to "an unforeseeable technical incident" beyond its control.

The European polyethylene market is also tightening. On July 8, Sabic declared FM for some grades of LDPE from its plant at Geleen, the Netherlands, and Wilton, UK - the same day that Dow Europe stopped taking new orders for  LDPE from its Geleen site.