(ICIS) -- Chemical major Arkema will raise January caustic soda prices in France by EUR70/dry metric tonne (dmt) - or USD90/dmt - because of market tightness caused by reduced output of co-product chlorine as well as production outages at several manufacturing sites, a source at the French company said today.
US-based Dow Chemical announced a EUR50/dmt increase on 29 November, effective 1 January 2012. INEOS ChlorVinyls followed on 14 December, announcing contract price hikes of EUR50/dmt with immediate effect or as contracts allowed.
Arkema restarted its electrolysis units in Fos-sur-Mer and Lavera, near Marseilles, on France's Mediterranean coast, in the week ending 9 December, following unplanned shutdowns. The force majeure remains in place until further notice, as the company aims to build up enough inventories to secure customer supply.
The Arkema source said: ⌠All sites are producing at the rate dictated by low chlorine offtake. Thus, caustic soda production is still limited, which is delaying a recovery of stock levels.
⌠Nevertheless, next week we should have our storage facilities in Spain, Italy and the UK back to a workable level, which will allow us to decrease the allocation quota from 100% to 50%, and later lift the force majeure.