Formosa Plastics USA shuts Point Comfort LDPE unit, to restart next week: sources

New York — Petrochemical producer Formosa Plastics USA has temporarily shut down their LDPE plant at Point Comfort, Texas, and is expected to restart the end of next week, sourcesclose to the matter told S&P Global Platts on Jan. 29.

Formosa did not respond to a request for comment Jan. 29.

The line was shut down due to lack of ethylene, sources said.

The LDPE unit has a nameplate capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

Formosa aimed to restart its 1.27 million mt/year ethane-fed cracker over the weekend of Jan. 30-31 after an unplanned shutdown on Dec. 19, according to multiple sources familiar with company operations.

"Formosa is definitely having issues," one trader source said. "The LDPE line has been temporarily shut down all because of inadequate ethylene. All of this because they've been unable to run all their lines at top rates and it's running at reduced rates," the source added.

Platts assessed US low density polyethylene flat on Jan. 28 at $1,422-$1,444/mt (64.5-65.5 cents/lb) FAS Houston, after the price rose $22/mt on the week Jan. 27.