BASF/Dow and Other Giants Suddenly Force Majeure

Americas Styrenics (AmSty), a major North American polystyrene (PS) producer, said on Tuesday that it is conducting a distribution process for its polystyrene products in light of recent production issues and supply chain challenges.

Americas Styrenics (AmSty) confirmed this in a letter to customers on Tuesday, saying it expects to reduce order volumes and limit availability through June. The company said the PS allocation was due to a prolonged reduction in styrene production due to unexpected operational issues at its St. James, Louisiana styrene monomer plant on April 27. Factory issues also led AmSty to declare force majeure on deliveries of its raw materials styrene and ethylbenzene.

At the same time as AmSty's distribution announcement, it will also increase the price of PS products by $0.05/lb starting May 1.

Separately, TotalEnergie said in a letter to clients last Friday that it declared force majeure on North American PP products due to a shortage of additives needed to produce certain grades. The company added that its PP production will be curtailed until further notice and could not provide a timetable for normal production to resume.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil said in a letter to clients on Wednesday that it would begin allocating sales of specific PP grades due to current operational constraints. The company added that the timing and quality of the product for this allocation measure is still being determined as it will now assess the impact on its PP.

The force majeure announcement by ExxonMobil and Total Energy follows both Ineos Olefins & Polymers and LyondellBasell declaring PP to remain in force majeure, a move that could put further pressure on availability in the event of some force majeure that has already occurred.

On May 3, Dow issued an emergency notice saying that due to the accident of a supplier of upstream raw materials, its ability to supply key raw materials to Dow's business was interrupted. Affected by this, Dow's propylene glycol supply declared force majeure, recovery time Follow-up notice!

According to the latest news, BASF announced that the polyether polyol and PU systems in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have encountered force majeure. BASF could not confirm orders for May and June due to the inability of BASF Dow HPPO production to deliver the agreed volumes of propylene oxide, noting that it also cannot guarantee fulfillment of already confirmed orders.