Production Run Rates Will Remain Halved Until The End of The Year

Production run rates at Borealis' propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant in Belgium will remain halved until the end of the year, the company said Friday.

The PDH plant, located in Kallo near Antwerp, produces around 480,000 mt/year of propylene.

Borealis shut the plant's reactor in mid-November for maintenance, but kept the splitter running that allowed the PDH to operate at 50%.

"We decided to keep (the reactor) down until the end of the year and will then re-evaluate," a spokeswoman told Platts.

High feedstock cost, poor margins and weak demand were the main factors that influenced the company to reduce the plant's utilization rates, Borealis has said previously.

The European propylene market remained lackluster in November, a trend that is expected to persist in December, a short and seasonally slow period in the downstream chain, particularly for polypropylene, sources said.

Run rates at most naphtha-fueled steam crackers, which produce both ethylene and propylene, in Europe have also been further reduced -- now heard at around 75% to 80% -- due to poor demand and margins, they added.

Spot prices for polymer grade propylene were assessed at Eur982.50/mt ($1,278/mt) FD NWE on Thursday, down Eur10/mt from a week earlier and a 15-week low, Platts data showed. This was 12% below the November contract price of Eur1,120/mt FD NWE.

The December contract price for propylene was fully settled Thursday at Eur1,103/mt, down Eur17/mt from November.