Ireland's Quinn Group has decided to delay construction at the €300 mln petrochemical project near Leipzig, Germany, by about one year. The plant was being set up to produce MMA monomer. Uncertainty surrounding the construction was due to "the incomplete status of the design , the ongoing requirement for process clarifications and the international market situation which is causing bottlenecks in deliveries of equipment. Sean Quinn invested in the Leipzig production plant in November 2005, originally investing €150 mln.
The original designers of the project, German engineering consultants Udhe, have been recently replaced by a French company, Litwin, after a disagreement. Quinn Chemicals were unhappy with the Udhe consultants mainly because their estimates of the cost of the project doubled the original budgets of the Quinn Group. The projected budget overruns have caused th ehead office to rethink the project. The project was due to come onstream in the first quarter of 2008, but will now be delayed at least until 2010. It was anticipated that full capacity would see the production of 100,000 tons of MMA a year for the world market.
24-Mar-08 
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