MOSCOW (MRC) -- France’s Kem One declared a force majeure (FM) on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) supplies from its Saint-Fons site, France on February 3, reported NCT with reference to a source from the company.
Rising water levels on Rhone River, which interrupted the transportation of feedstock VCM, was cited as the reason behind the FM.
The interrupted navigation on Rhone River prevented the company from transporting vinyl chlorie monomer(VCM) to its Saint-Fons site and forced it to slow down production of PVC there. Internal stocks could not be replenished enough due to very high demand from customers, the source added.
Meanwhile, PVC production at the Balan site has been put under allocation for the same reason.
Saint-Fons site can produce around 210,000 tons/year of PVC, while the company’s Balan plant has a PVC production of 300,000 tons/year.
As MRC wrote before, in late July, 2020, ferric chloride leaked from Kem One’s (Lyon, France) PVC production site at Berre, France, into the Mediterranean Sea. Several reports quoted then a Kem One spokesperson, who confirmed that the leak came from a storage tank and that the liquid was discharged into the sea via a storm sewer. The company said the incident caused no injuries.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
Kem One, a fully integrated vinyl production company, was established mid-2012 following the acquisition of Arkema's vinyl products division by the Klesch Group. The company employs 2,600 people at 22 manufacturing sites, primarily in Europe but also in Asia and North America. Europe’s second-largest producer of PVC with revenues in excess of one billion euros, Kem One continues to grow and build on its numerous strengths with a view to becoming market leader for integrated vinyl solutions.
MRC