Dow Resumes Full Operations for Acrylic Acid and Esters in Germany and Texas

19-Oct-2004

The Dow Chemical Company and its affiliated companies in Europe (collectively "Dow") announced that it has resumed full acrylates operations at Boehlen, Germany and Clear Lake, Texas, where critical equipment failures caused sudden, unplanned outages in September. The separate and unrelated events forced the company to declare force majeure for acrylic acid and esters production at both manufacturing sites.

Due to the lasting impact of its force majeure events, Dow continues to maintain its area-specific product allocation levels.

"Several factors depleted our inventories and produced an industry-wide shortage for acrylates products even before our circumstances led to force majeure" said Doug May, global business director for Dow Acrylates. "These factors include unusually high demand and unplanned manufacturing events announced by multiple producers throughout the industry, which heightened the effect of our own force majeure events."

"We have resolved the issues associated with the critical equipment failures and remain committed to safe and efficient production of acrylates," said May. "It is our goal to provide a secure, long-term source of quality acrylic-based products and our immediate focus is to optimize our assets and efficiency in production. We are investing significant resources to improve both the capability and reliability of our acrylic acid and esters units."

Dow acquired the Acrylic Acid and Esters business of Celanese in First Quarter 2004, making it one of the largest global producers of acrylic acid and esters and the world's largest Acrylates merchant market participant.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/40305/dow-resumes-full-operations-for-acrylic-acid-and-esters-in-germany-and-texas.html