Chemical producers along Mississippi may rely on trucks and railcars to move materia

(ICIS) -- Chemical producers along the Mississippi river may rely increasingly on trucks and railcars to move material because of high water and flooding, sources said on Tuesday. The river already has crested at Memphis, Tennessee, and it could crest on the lower Mississippi on 24 May. If water levels become too high, shipping could be prohibited on the river. As a result, chemical plants would have to rely on trucks and rail to receive feedstock and ship out product.

In fact, some trucks were freed up in Memphis, Tennessee, because of the flooding, Tapscott said. Miller Transporters expects more truck interest to emerge next week should the river crest.

Most likely, chemical distributors are already preparing for more traffic, said Matthew Glaser, director of member advancement and strategic communications for the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD).

The lower Mississippi is home to several chemical plants. Plaquemine and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have plants of such companies as Georgia Gulf, Dow Chemical, Shintech, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics and Lion Copolymer.

MRC

(Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp is running its 540.000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at around 87 percent capacity after a crude distillation unit (CDU) resumed production in late April following a planned maintenance, its spokesman said on Wednesday. It has also restored runs at its 2.93 million tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracking complex to full capacity after operational rates were slightly decreased due to squeezed margins. But it has not restarted one of its two residue desulphurising unit (RDS) which was damaged by a fire in July last year.

Without the RDS -- which removes sulphur -- Formosa needs to rely on light sweet crudes, which are more expensive that heavy crude oil. The privately-run firm operates three CDUs of equal capacity.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Japan may be looking at a sharp contraction in economic output in the second quarter, which will reflect the extent of the damage wrought by the 11 March disasters, analysts said on Tuesday. Its power supply problem has just been aggravated with the country's third biggest electricity operator, Chubu Electric Power, agreeing to a government request to shut its Hamaoka nuclear plant for safety reasons.

The Bank of Japan pointed to ⌠high uncertainty about the possible effects of the earthquake disaster on Japan's economy, in the minutes of early April monetary policy meeting that was released on Monday.

The Japanese economy may shrink by as much as 5% on a year-on-year basis in the June quarter as implementation of rolling blackouts in the aftermath of the 9.0-quake and tsunami in March has hit industries hard, said Gregory See, a Singapore-based economist at research firm Forecast.

The country's automotive manufacturers halted production for weeks after the disasters and are currently operating at reduced capacities. The same is true for some petrochemical facilities in the quake-hit areas.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Crude oil for June delivery started the week above the hundred dollar mark at USD 102. Last week saw a 14.7% decline in oil futures, but recoiled by over five dollars at the start of the week on strong investor sentiments. The latest rally stems in part from expectations that the overall supply and demand fundamentals for oil will become less elastic by early 2012.

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(BASF) -- Employees of BASF worldwide have donated more than EUR 780.000 to the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. BASF fully matched each donation contributed by the employees one-to-one. Including these funds and the initial contribution by BASF, donations therefore total over EUR 2 million.

The aid money from the employee donation campaign in Germany initially went to the BASF Social Foundation. This institution, in close cooperation with BASF Japan, will now identify suitable partner organizations and projects in Japan for the use of the matching funds. Employees of BASF group companies outside Germany donated to their local Red Cross and Save the Children organizations, among others.

BASF has 35 operations sites (including 27 production sites and eight R&D and technical centers) and 49 sales offices in Japan. Most BASF production sites in Japan are up and running normally now, and the Tokyo office is now operational.

MRC