Equistar Louisiana polypropylene plant shut after lightning strike: Lyondell

LyondellBasell has shut its Equistar Chemicals polypropylene plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, following a lightning strike, LyondellBasell said July 16..

The lightning strike occurred July 13, LyondellBasell said in a letter to customers obtained by S&P Global Platts

"This unforeseen event caused utilities outages and a shutdown of all plant production lines," the company said. "We are currently evaluating the overall impact to the plant and are working towards restart; however, at this time, we do not have a complete timeline for startup."

There could be an update on operations by close of business on July 20, LyondellBassell said.

The plant has nameplate capacity totaling 509,000 mt/year of polypropylene, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics data.

A LyondellBasell spokeswoman decline further comment.

The announcement came as pricing has been strong amid healthy domestic demand, limited supply offers and tight supply across the grades, sources said.

Platts assessed homopolymer polypropylene July 15 at $2,690-$2,712/mt on a FAS Houston basis, unchanged on the day.