Shintech planning Texas PVC turnaround in April: source

Houston — Shintech is planning a month-long turnaround in April on one of the trains at its 1.4 million mt/year PVC facility in Freeport, Texas, according to a source familiar with company operations.

Market sources had expected the turnaround to occur in March, as is typical, but the source said it was planned for April. The upcoming planned work has prompted the company to stockpile PVC to meet domestic and contract demand, limiting export volume availability for March and April, the source said.

The company did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

OxyChem, the chemical division of Occidental Petroleum, also has a seven-day PVC turnaround slated for April at its 1 million mt/year plant in Pasadena, Texas, according to a source familiar with company operations. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Formosa Plastics USA has two ongoing turnarounds at its 798,000 mt/year PVC plant and an upstream 753,000 mt/year vinyl chloride monomer facility at the company's Point Comfort complex, also in Texas.

The PVC work at Point Comfort had been slated to wrap up by the end of February, but was still ongoing this week, according to a source familiar with company operations. The VCM work was scheduled to stretch into mid-March.

The company declined to comment.

All of the work was expected to limit export volume availability in March and April, market sources said.