MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical, one of the largest US petrochemical companies, has begun bringing operations back online "as third-party utility balances and raw materials availability allow," reported S&P Global with reference to a company statement Sept. 8.
Dow said its Taft operations were "making progress" toward restarting, and the company expected to have a clearer timeline for resumption of production in the coming days based on repairs and as access to power and raw materials allow.
According to sources familiar with the company's' operations the restarts would be gradual, as Dow's complexes involve multiple plants that have to be restarted one by one while checking for any storm-related, as-yet-undiscovered damage.
At Plaquemine, Dow has two crackers and multiple polyethylene plants.
Thus, Dow Chemical operates here 1 million mt/year and 500,000 mt/year crackers; 750,000 mt/year high density polyethylene (HDPE); 184,000 mt/year and 350,000 mt/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) and 544,000 mt/year linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plants.
As MRC wrote earlier, Dow Chemical began the process of restarting operations at its cracker No.7 in Freeport (Freeport, TX, USA) on 19 July, 2021, after a technological disruption on 4 July, 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
Dow Chemical is an American diversified chemical company headquartered in Midland, Michigan. It is a major manufacturer of polymer products, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene and synthetic rubbers. The company produces more than five thousand products at 188 production facilities in 37 countries.
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