Spain: Interquisa PTA plant back in operation after force majeure

Interquisa, one of the foremost and by far the only producer of purified terephalthalate acid (PTA) in Spain, declared shut down of its production line following compressor problems.
This abrupt outage in production was unwished for, especially at a time when demand for PTA is surging as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) enters the peak summer season.
However, the repercussions of this halt are still to be seen, with players settling business several months in arrears.
Nonetheless, an obvious pressure was felt on prices which were reported at US $58 per ton last week. Spot PX prices also reached record highs in Europe on May 13.
In an exclusive interview with Fibre2fashion, an official of Interquisa confirmed the stoppage saying, “It was an emergency shutdown due to technical problems at its 750,000 ton per year plant in San Roque beginning in early May. However, now the plant is running with its full capacity.”
Moreover, the official also informed about a 5 day planned shutdown of their Denerise plant for revamping to give better performance. Besides, another unit at Helva will also go for a 7 day planned outage for regular maintenance of its bis cracker.