Maintenance shutdown at BASF's Ludwigshafen styrene plant

One of BASF's styrene plants at Ludwigshafen, Germany; with an estimated capacity of more than 500,000 tpa, will be off line for routine maintenance until the end of the month. Earlier, the plant was down for several weeks at the beginning of the year, due to a technical glitch, a catalyst is being replaced. The Ludwigshafen site´s 410,000 tpa steamcracker no. 2, which processes naphtha to ethylene and propylene, is also currently in routine maintenance as part of a turnaround scheme, till the end of the month.