MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shintech, a subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. and the largest US polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer, has replaced a damaged transformer at its Plaquemine, Louisiana, complex and the units were running at normal rates on July 26, reported S&P Global with reference to sources familiar with company operations.
One of two transformers at the complex was hit by lightning and caught fire July 2, prompting the company to shut multiple units. Thus, one unit with the capacity of 445,000 mt/year of PVC was shut on 2 July, 2021.
Shintech slowly restarted shut plants days later, but ran them at reduced rates while working to replace the damaged transformer, the sources said.
At present, all the works are completed, and all the units "now back in full running," one of the sources said.
Shintech did not respond to a request for comment.
The company's overall production capacity for PVC at its Plaquemine site is 1.606 mln mt/year.
Market sources said earlier that the interruption has reduced Shintech's August export volume availability.
As MRC informed earlier, in late Marchl, 2020, Shintech shut its PVC facility in Freeport, Texas for a turnaround. The complany ended maintenance works at its 1.4 million mt/year PVC complex in Freeport in early May, 2020.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 515,900 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 1% year on year. At the same time, two producers reduced their output.
Shintech Inc. is the world's largest producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is a general-use resin that is finding wide application in goods used in daily life and a significant number of industrial materials. Shintech is committed to operating safe and environmentally responsible facilities
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