LyondellBasell (Houston, Tex.; www.lyondellbasell.com) and Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com) have jointly decided to permanently close the Propylene Oxide Styrene and Monomer (POSM) production unit (PO11) at the Maasvlakte site in the Netherlands. This decision comes after thorough and careful consideration and is driven by the continued pressure on Maasvlakte’s profitability due to global overcapacities, a strong increase of imports from Asia and high costs of European production. Unfortunately, this situation is expected to continue, so longer-term profitable production is not anticipated.
“While the decision to shut down the PO11 unit is difficult, we must ensure all assets within our portfolio are a long-term strategic fit,” said Aaron Ledet, executive vice-president, I&D and Supply Chain. “We are prioritizing our core assets which play a key role in our technology differentiation and circularity or provide attractive returns over the cost of capital. We take our obligations toward our employees, European employee reps, councils and unions seriously. We have engaged with them in line with these obligations and will continue to do so. We would like to thank them for the constructive dialogue. We are also in communication with customers, suppliers and other parties across the value chain and will continue to do business as usual. There is no change to our working relationship, and we continue to focus on providing an exceptional customer and supplier experience.”
“As part of our Sustainable Future Strategy, we’re continuously working to optimally position Covestro to be a reliable partner for our customers and to operate competitively in a challenging market environment,” said Hermann-Josef Dörholt, head of the Performance Materials Business Entity at Covestro. “Due to global overcapacities, persistently weak demand, and high costs in Europe, we have jointly decided with LYB to close the PO11 plant. We will support LYB in implementing this change as socially responsibly as possible. At the same time, we remain committed to the European market and will continue to supply customers with our renowned polyether polyols portfolio.”
The Maasvlakte site, a joint venture between LYB and Covestro, has been operational in the Rotterdam region since 2003. Between now and the end of 2026, LYB will carry out a process to safely shut down and prepare for the demolition of the asset.
In 2024, LYB announced a strategic review of European assets of its Olefins & Polyolefins (O&P) and Intermediates & Derivatives (I&D) business units. LYB has taken the next step in evaluating the option to seek alternative ownership for the O&P sites in the strategic assessment. At this time no decisions have been made and various outcomes remain possible.
By Scott Jenkins
Source: chemengonline.com
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