Resins supply in Argentina will not be disrupted, says Dow Chemical

Dow Chemical has informed its clients that polyethylene supply will not be disrupted in Argentina, according to a company letter seen by S&P Global Platts Monday.

"We do not foresee any impact on the needs of your products, as current orders can be fulfilled through our other production units," Dow said in the letter addressed to its consumers.

The company had announced last Thursday it would stop for at least 30 days two PE trains in Texas, a PE unit in Argentina and two elastomers units in Louisiana — about 10% of the company's global capacity for packaging and specialty plastics. The company said the productive disruption would be between May and June.

The company once again stated the reason for the stoppage was significant volatility in demand across all their markets. "Essential business markets, such as food packaging, hygiene products and medical products that are considered essential, have seen an increase in demand, while there has been a notable slowdown in other important segments, such as automotive, construction and durable consumer goods," it said.

Dow also said it will continue to monitor demand across its market segments in the coming months and "readjust production as needed as the world begins to recover and normalize."

According to sources and S&P Global Platts data, the Dow Chemical Bahia Blanca complex has two crackers -- cracker 1 with installed capacity of 275,000 mt/year, and cracker 2 with installed capacity of 455,000 mt/year. The complex has six productive plants: two for ethylene and four focused on PE — high density PE, low density PE, linear low density PE and expanded PE.

Market sources said the Argentinian plant to be stopped is a high-density polyethylene plant.

Dow did not respond to a request for comment.