Formosa Plastics USA has restarted its PVC plant in Point Comfort, Texas, market sources informed SSESSMENTS.COM. The 798,000 tons/year PVC unit was under planned maintenance and is expected to reach regular production level in early April. The producer also delayed a planned PVC turnaround at its 513,000 tons/year Baton Rouge facility which was initially scheduled for May.
Meanwhile, fellow US PVC producer, Shintech started planned work at one of the trains at its 1.4 million tons/year PVC complex in Freeport, Texas. According to the sources, the maintenance is expected to last through April.
The restart of Formosa’s Point Comfort PVC plant came amid growing uncertainty for PVC producers due to the coronavirus outbreak. Market sources informed SSESSMENTS.COM that regular buyers of US PVC had requested for shipment rescheduling and cancellation.
Uncertainty grows further after India began implementing a 21-day national lockdown on Wednesday. Some Indian ports have declared force majeure which is expected to slow down imports of all kinds of products including PVC. Other countries and some of the states in the US have also adopted similar steps to prevent the disease from spreading further.
Some market participants estimate US export PVC prices to fall by as much as $100/ton in April from a near two-year high of $850-$860/ton FAS Houston on March 18.
