Two week maintenance shutdown at Polibrasil PP plant amid feedstock problems

07-Jan-05

Feedstock problems has necessitated a two week shutdown at Polibrasil, Brazil's leading polypropylene producer. Polibrasil's PP plant, located in Rio de Janeiro will use the outage to prepare for debottlenecking the plant. The company plans an increase in production by by 60,000 mt at the 300,000 mta polypropylene plant by the end of 2005. Increased output from the plant will go towards meeting growing domestic demand. Polibrasil is a partnership between Basell (a joint venture of Germany's Basf and Anglo-Dutch Shell) and Brazil's Companhia Suzano Papel e Celulose.Polibrasil has three production plants in Brazil located in Maua (state of Sao Paulo), Camaçari (state of Bahia) and Duque de Caxias (state of Rio de Janeiro). The Brazilian market for polypropylene increased 40.4% between 1997 and 2001. As per projections, Brazilian consumption of polypropylene increased by 90,000 tons in 2003 alone and is expected to grow substantially in the following few years. Such a robust growth will necessitate imports by 2007 to meet local demand, should the country not witness an increase in output.