Borealis investigates weekend fire incident at Stenungsund cracker in Sweden

New York — Austria-based petrochemicals producer Borealis said Monday that it was still investigating a fire that broke out late Saturday at its Stenungsund steam cracker in Sweden.

Borealis said in an initial public statement issued Sunday that its emergency plan was immediately activated by the local crisis team." The fire broke out at 20:45 CEST, according to the company.

The company said no one was injured and that it was working closely with authorities to investigate the causes.

Market sources said the incident would have an impact on the market, referring back to when the Stenungsund cracker was under force majeure for around 10 days in April which helped noticeably to balance ethylene supply in Northwest Europe, which had been particularly long. Sources are predicting a similar impact as a result of this latest incident, with additional impact on propylene, a source said, as "they were cracking heavier."

The Stenungsund cracker can produce 625,000 mt/year of ethylene and 150,000 mt/year of propylene, according to the S&P Global Platts Analytics data.