Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) supply in Europe is tight, following a series of outages of feedstock ethylene production across the region, as per sources in Platts. There is an alarming lack of PVC throughout Europe.
Spain's Repsol declared force majeure on feedstock ethylene supplies at its 702,000 tpa steam cracker in Tarragona. The region's PVC producers have not yet announced difficulties securing feedstock supply.
Additionally French producer Kem One declared force majeure on production of PVC and vinyl chloride monomer at its Lavera plant, southern France, at the start of the week, following a fire at Naphtachimie's steam cracker, also at Lavera. The damage to the steam cracker is still being assessed, but it is believed to be extensive and repairs will take a considerable time to complete, Kem One said. All of Kem One's production units at Lavera were halted and its nearby Fos-sur-Mer plant, where Naphtachimie is not the only supplier of ethylene, is running at reduced capacity. The Naphtachimie cracker is a joint venture between Ineos and Total, with nameplate capacity of 740,000 tpa.
Force majeure continues at Vinnolit's 170,000 tpa Knapsack plant in Germany. The German producer declared force majeure at the plant due to ethylene supply problems, following a fire at Shell's nearby Wesseling cracker. Shell declared force majeure at its Wesseling cracker May 10, market sources said.
In a move that is expected to slightly ease the tightened supply, Ineos lifted force majeure at its 370,000 tpa PVC plant in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, where force majeure was declared on 21 April following a technical issue at its upstream VCM unit at the same site.
22-May-15 
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