MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics USA, part of Formosa Petrochemical, has postponed a May polyvinyl chloride (PVC) turnaround at its facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to this summer, reported S&P Global with reference to the source familiar with the company's operations.
Meanwhile, the target start date of this plant with the capacity of 513,000 mt/year after maintenance works is yet to be determined, the souce said.
As MRC wrote earlier, Formosa Plastics USA has restarted its PVC plant in Point Comfort, Texas, after planned maintenance works. Formosa's Point Comfort plant with the capacit of 798,000 mt/year was expected to reach normal rates by early April, a source close to the company said.
Formosa's resumption of output at Point Comfort comes at an uncertain time for PVC producers and traders, as demand grows more uncertain amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Market sources said some customers that regularly buy US PVC exports have canceled or rescheduled orders, unsure of what demand will be like in the coming weeks and months.
"We ... face a lot of requests for cancellation and shipment rescheduling," a market source said. "We may be at the moment to stop to move forward."
PVC, a construction staple used to make pipes, window frames, vinyl siding and flooring and other products, is closely tied to economic health and GDP growth. About 60% of PVC output is used to make construction supplies, and the rest is used to manufacture other goods, such as intravenous fluid bags and medical tubing.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, contrary to seasonal factors, Russian producers of unmixed PVC have maintained a high level of capacity utilisation. Russia's overal PVC output totalled 91,700 tonnes in January 2020, up by 4% year on year. January production of unmixed PVC was 91,700 tonnes versus 87,760 tonnes in January 2019 and 81,400 tonnes in December 2019. Thus, despite relatively weak demand for resin from the domestic market, the average capacity utilisation exceeded 95% last month. Russia's overall PVC production reached 975,000 tonnes in 2019, compared to 958,600 tonnes a year earlier.
Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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