Ineos Olefins & Polymers declared force majeure on homopolymer PP produced out of its Carson, California, plant due to "complications associated with the acquisition of feedstock," the company said in a 12 September letter to customers.
Additionally, the company said the force majeure may extend to its supply of all homopolymer PP grades, not just from Carson.
The letter did not provide any information on the source of the feedstock problems. The Carson facility typically gets its feedstock from the adjacent Marathon Petroleaum refinery also located in Carson.
The US PP market is currently fairly well-supplied, with no other major supply disruptions, but with producers operating at rates below 85pc of capacity all year due to weak demand. Much of the material produced at Ineos' Carson facility is typically sent to the export market, sources said.
Ineos has approximately 230,000 t/yr of PP capacity at its Carson PP plant. The company has an additional 586,000 t/yr of PP capacity at plants in Chocolate Bayou and Deer Park, Texas.
