MOSCOW (MRC) -- Seqens (Ecully, France) lifted its force majeure on isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on Wednesday, company sources tell IHS Markit, as per Chemweek.
It declared force majeure on IPA production at Roussillon, France, in mid-March after the French government advised the company to supply IPA to end-users and distributors that supply hand sanitizer to hospitals following the outbreak of COVID-19. Seqens has not provided an explanation for lifting the force majeure.
Seqens is France's only dedicated producer of IPA with 60,000 metric tons/year of capacity at Roussillon. The company announced plans in April to add 50,000 metric tons/year of IPA capacity at the site for startup in 2021. It operates a phenol/acetone unit at Roussillon that supplies acetone to the IPA plant. Seqens cut phenol production in March due to low demand, limiting the company's ability to produce IPA.
IPA prices spiked in Europe during March and April because of rising demand for hand sanitizer, but fell €200-200/metric ton from their peak in April to €2,200-2,800/metric ton del. northwest Europe in late May, IHS Markit understands.
As MRC informed earlier, in late April, French acetone maker Seqens announced force majeure for deliveries from its Peage plant. The plant's capacity is 108 thousand tons of acetone per year. It was the third acetone producer in Europe to announce force majeure since the beginning of the year.
Acetone, along with phenol, is the main raw material component for the production of bisphenol A (BPA, by condensation), which, in turn, is used to produce polycarbonate (PC).
According to MRC's ScanPlast, in Russia the total estimated consumption of PC granules for the four months of 2020 (excluding imports and exports to Belarus) amounted to 30.5 thousand tons, which is 20% higher than last year (25.3 thousand tons).
MRC