Westlake restarts Louisiana styrene unit

Market: Petrochemicals
06/11/14

Westlake confirmed today it began pumping feedstocks into its 260,000 t/yr styrene unit in Westlake, Louisiana, an initial step in the process of restarting production.

The company expects to ramp up run rates over the weekend and be at commercial run rates by 10 November.

The Westlake styrene unit has been offline since 15 August, when it was taken down due to poor market economics.

Since then, an outage in Europe boosted demand for US cargoes and widened the arbitrage during October and into this month. Yesterday the styrene netback to Europe was calculated at 71.35¢/lb.

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Bulk terminals firm HES prepares for energy transition

31/03/26

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31/03/26

Bulk terminals firm HES prepares for energy transition

Paris, 31 March (Argus) — Bulk terminal company HES International operates 14 facilities in four European countries and anticipates important changes to its operations as the energy transition and hydrogen market evolve. Argus spoke with new energies business development director Otto Waterlander and chief commercial officer for HES Med Terminal Firas Ezzeddine about how an infrastructure player must adapt to serve customers. Edited highlights follow: What does HES do and what is its role in decarbonisation? Ezzeddine: We are an essential and critical part of the logistics value chain for the industrial heart of Europe. Our value proposition is that we are located in deep sea ports in close proximity to industrial zones, meaning that we are well positioned to serve strategic European industries and their logistical needs. Waterlander: We are purely an infrastructure player; we do not normally have a stake or exposure to the commodities that we manage through our terminals. Our customers tend to be carbon-intensive and they all are struggling with the question of decarbonisation. For HES, it is both a necessity and an opportunity. It is a necessity because classic flows of commodities will phase out over time. And an opportunity because of the energy transition... new things are happening, for example, [development of a] CO2 [market]. Today, we are not involved in handling CO2, but it is going to become a commodity in the future. What are the main challenges related to energy transition activities? Ezzeddine: I see challenges in three buckets. The first is timing: there is a bit of a lag between project deployment and when the infrastructure should be ready to facilitate flows. These are generally not well aligned. The second challenge is around financing. We see from both private and public sector a bit of a risk averseness in terms of investing in the infrastructure for the future. 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Saudi Sadara petchem site shuts down on US-Iran war

31/03/26

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31/03/26

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US methanol price climbs to 4-year high

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Westlake restarts Louisiana styrene unit

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