Hanwha Total issues SM force majeure

South Korea petrochemical producer Hanwha Total issued a force majeure today on styrene monomer (SM) supplies to its customers in China, India and southeast Asia.

The producer had shut both its Daesan-based SM production lines on 27 March for scheduled maintenance, in line with an upstream cracker shutdown, even though wage negotiations between the Hanwha Total labor union and company management had already fallen apart and a strike had already started on 23 March.

Hanwha Total operates a smaller 400,000 t/yr No.1 SM line and the larger 700,000 t/yr No.2 line. Both were supposed to resume operations on 6 May.

While the producer was able to restart the smaller unit over the weekend, operations are capped at 80pc because of the lack of manpower. The producer's larger unit remains idle because of the staffing issues and lack of feedstock as the upstream cracker is also being shut amid the strike.

It remains unclear how long the strike will last.