Factbox: Petrochemical restarts post-Ida await power, feedstocks

Louisiana petrochemical facilities that shut down ahead of Hurricane Ida's Aug. 29 landfall were regaining access to electric power, allowing some to begin restarting while others awaited critical inflows of raw materials and continued comprehensive damage assessments.

Most plants in the polyvinyl chloride production chain affected by the storm remained shut Sept. 7, though some had begun restarting, having restored access to electric power.

However, Shintech, the US arm of Japan's Shin-Etsu, had to shut its 1.45 million mt/year PVC operations in Freeport, Louisiana, late the week of Aug. 30 because Olin shut an 835,000 mt/year upstream vinyl chloride monomer unit at Freeport because of an equipment failure, according to sources familiar with both companies' operations. Olin supplies VCM to Shintech's Freeport plant, which had to shut when Olin's VCM inventories ran out, sources said.

Neither company responded to requests for comment.

About 41% of US PVC capacity was already offline because of plants affected by Ida that line the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Shintech's shutdown pushed that amount to about 58%, according to S&P Global Platts data.

"Vinyls can't catch a break," said Rob Stier, senior manager of global petrochemical analytics at Platts.

PVC is a construction staple used to make pipes, window frames, vinyl siding and other products.

Formosa Plastics USA's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, PVC operation had partially restarted with power restored and limited access to industrial gases, but could not fully restart until full restoration of those industrial gas flows, according to sources familiar with the company's operations. Olin also has begun restarting its chlor-alkali operations in Plaquemine, Louisiana, sources familiar with its operations said.

Formosa also declared force majeure Sept. 5 on PVC because of the lingering Ida issues, according to a customer letter seen by Platts.

Neither company responded to requests for comment.

Entergy, the major power provider in the Louisiana region, issued a list of target dates for power restoration by parish. Iberville Parish, home to Plaquemine, St. Gabriel and Carville, had power restored Sept. 4, and Ascension Parish, home to Geismar, was slated to have power restored Sept. 7.

Power, however, wasn't the only issue for restarts. Nova Chemicals' 977,000 mt/year cracker in Geismar did not lose power when Ida hit, but "it's still too early to say when we will restart as supply disruptions continue to impact our raw materials," spokeswoman Jennifer Nanz said in an email Sept. 7.

However, access to industrial gas feedstocks remained a hindrance to some companies, such as Westlake Chemical and Shintech, each of which operate PVC complexes in Plaquemine.

Here is a rundown of shutdowns, restarts and force majeures:

RESTARTS

Baton Rouge

**ExxonMobil chemical complex: 1 million mt/year cracker; 400,000 mt/year HDPE; 400,000 mt/year LDPE; 900,000 mt/year LLDPE; 410,000 mt/year polypropylene

**Formosa Plastics USA: 513,000 mt/year PVC; 653,000 mt/year vinyl chloride monomer

Plaquemine

**Olin: 850,000 mt/year chlorine; 934,066 mt/year caustic soda

SHUTDOWNS

Plaquemine

**Dow Chemical: 1 million mt/year and 500,000 mt/year crackers; 750,000 mt/year HDPE; 184,000 mt/year and 350,000 mt/year LDPE; 544,000 mt/year LLDPE

**Shintech: 500,000 mt/year cracker; 600,000 mt/year PVC; 1.77 million mt/year VCM; 2 million mt/year ethylene dichloride; 1.16 million mt/year chlorine; 1.28 million mt/year caustic soda

**Westlake Chemical: 861,826 mt/year PVC; 725,747 mt/year VCM; 1.15 million mt/year EDC; 426,376 mt/year chlorine; 453,592 mt/year caustic soda

Addis

**Shintech: 900,000 mt/year PVC

Geismar

**Westlake Chemical: 520,000 mt/year PVC; 625,000 mt/year EDC; 317,514 mt/year chlorine; 349,266 mt/year caustic soda

**Nova Chemical: 977,000 mt/year cracker

**OxyChem: 315,000 mt/year EDC; 353,000 mt/year chlorine; 387,912 mt/year caustic soda

**Methanex: Two methanol units, each 1 million mt/year

**Shell Chemical: 375,000 mt/year ethylene glycols

Convent

**OxyChem: 613,000 mt/year EDC; 353,000 mt/year chlorine; 387,912 mt/year caustic soda

Taft

**Dow Chemical: Two crackers, 635,000 mt/year and $365,000 mt/year; 750,000 mt/year HDPE; 800,000 mt/year LLDPE

**OxyChem: 680,000 mt/year chlorine; 747,252 mt/year caustic soda

Norco

**Shell Chemical: 625,000 mt/year and 930,000 mt/year crackers; 265,351 mt/year butadiene

St. Gabriel

**Olin: 250,000 mt/year chlorine; 274,725 mt/year caustic soda

Garyville

**Pinnacle Polymers: 430,000 mt/year PP

Carville

**CosMar: Two styrene units, each 579,000 mt/year

**Total Energies, 660,000 mt/year polystyrene

St. James

**YCI: Methanol unit, 1.7 million mt/year

**Americas Styrenics, two lines, 499,000 mt/year and 453,000 mt/year

St. Louis Bay, Mississippi

**DAK Americas, 430,000 mt/year PET

FORCE MAJEURES

**Pinnacle Polymers: Declared Aug. 30 for all products because of impacts of the storm

**OxyChem: Declared Aug. 30 on water treatment products marketed under ACL, Towerbrom and Towerchlor brands, as well as cyanuric acid

**DAK Americas: Declared Aug. 30 on PET

**OxyChem: Declared Aug. 31 for chlorine, caustic soda, ethylene dichloride, sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide, methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, perchoroethylene

**Westlake Chemical: Declared Aug. 31 for PVC and VCM

**Shintech: Declared Sept. 1 for caustic soda

**Westlake Chemical: Declared Sept. 2 for caustic soda

**Formosa Plastics USA: Declared Sept. 5 on PVC