Dow Chemical reports maintenance at Freeport, Texas PE unit: TCEQ

Dow Chemical reported maintenance at its polyethylene 4 unit in Freeport, Texas, to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ on Oct. 28.

The company was not available for immediate comment Oct. 28.

Dow Chemical said in the filing with TCEQ that the cause of the maintenance was to "clear reactor piping of impurities prior to start-up."

The flaring began Oct. 28 and is estimated to last 24 hours until Oct. 29.

The Freeport site is home to three crackers with a total capacity of 3.68 million mt/year, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics data.

Spot polyethylene prices seemed unaffected by the outage Oct. 28 as activity remained quiet as the month comes to an end, sources noted.

Platts last assessed LDPE at $1,135-$1,157/mt (51.5-52.5 cents/lb), LLDPE butene at $926-$948/mt (42-43 cents/lb), and HDPE blowmolding at $1,058-$1,080/mt (48-49 cents/lb), all FAS Houston basis and unchanged day on day.