TDI supply is now force majeure, US chemical plant delayed restart

On September 2, power outages continued in Louisiana, Germany and Texas, USA, making it more difficult for petrochemical plants to resume operations.

Many factories are still shutting down, partly due to power outages, even though they have survived the devastation of Hurricane Laura. The storm made landfall in Louisiana early on August 27, near the Texas border.

Entergy is the main substation in the area most affected by the storm. Currently working to restore power to critical community infrastructure, such as fire and police departments, hospitals, water utilities, and communications services, adding, “When we restore services to residential, commercial and industrial customers, we must balance customers Needs and capabilities to support the additional load allowed by the system."

Entergy did not give a timetable when the power supply to the industrial plants can be restored.

A synthetic rubber manufacturer said that a factory may not be able to receive electricity until mid-September.


Factory status update

A spokesperson for Covestro said that as of September 1, Covestro announced force majeure in the supply of toluene diisocyanate (TDI) in North America.

The company said the force majeure statement was due to the company’s recent closure of its Baytown, Texas plant before Hurricane Laura, and an unexpected shortage of key raw materials used in production.

Baytown is located near Houston, where it was hardly affected by the storm. Despite this, many companies in the region closed their operations just in case.

The nuclear power plant far away from the landing site was hardly damaged and is resuming operations.

The production capacity of some products was concentrated in areas hit by Hurricane Laura, which led to the closure of most of the production of these products in the United States.