Ineos noted that the declaration stemmed from an unforeseeable manufacturing breakdown, however specific details regarding the outage were not immediately available. Additionally, it was not clear how long the force majeure would remain in place. The company has an estimated polyethylene capacity of 1.75 billion lbs/year at Battleground.
Meanwhile, PE supplies in the US remained tight with HDPE blowmolding prices talked notionally at 57-58 cents/lb FAS Houston this week. Both LD and LLDPE remained tight and sources said that export offers were few as it was more profitable to sell LD in the domestic market. Sources said the outage further exacerbated overall market tightness and would bolster producers' efforts to push through a 5 cents/lb September increase.
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
