Ineos Oxide, part of the Ineos Group, declared force majeure on ethylene oxide produced at its 420,000 metric tons/year Bayport, Texas plant, according to a source familiar with operations cited by Platts.
The unplanned turnaround began October 16 owing to technical issues, and no restart date has been confirmed. Ineos declined to comment when contacted on October 27.
Downstream units at Bayport include a 375,000 mt/y ethylene glycols plant and a 165,000 mt/y glycol ethers plant, so market participants expect supply of those products to be affected.
Before the force majeure, a producer estimated November and December monoethylene glycol supply would be long by 38,000-48,000 mt. A polyol buyer said polyester polyol prices had risen despite very weak demand, driven mainly by tight diethylene glycol.
Platts assessed US spot diethylene glycol at 53 cents/pound FOB US Gulf on October 23, down 2.5 cents/lb on the week, while monoethylene glycol was assessed at 28 cents/lb, down 0.25 cents/lb.
