CommoPlast | Article - UPDATE: More USA producers restarting plants after the winter storm

An increasing number of USA petrochemical producers are in the process of restarting their plants after a winter storm struck much of the country, bringing sub-freezing temperature, prompting a widespread shutdowns along the US Gulf Coast plants as a precaution measure.

It is important to note that while some producers have resumed normal productions, others might need more time to inspect all exposed pipelines to ensure safety upon the restart.

The following table summarizes petrochemical plants that have started to come back online:

Company	Location	Plant	Capacity (tons/year)	Status
Formosa Plastics USA	Point Comfort	PP (2 lines)	1,700,000	Restarting
Formosa Plastics USA	Baton Rouge	PVC	513,000	Restarting
Shell	Deer Park	Cracker (2 units)	961,000	Restarting
Shell	Norco	Cracker (2 units)	1,400,000	Restarting
OxyChem/Orbia	Ingleside	Cracker	550,000	Restarting
LyondellBasell	Channelview	Cracker (2 units)	1,930,000	Restarting
	Lake Charles	LLDPE	470,000	Restarting
	Lake Charles	LDPE	420,000	Restarting
CP Chem	Cedar Bayou	Cracker (2 units)	1,900,000	Restarting
CP Chem	Port Arthur	Cracker	853,000	Restarting
Indorama Ventures	Port Neches	Cracker	236,000	Restarting
Dow Chemical	Freeport	Cracker	680,000	Restarting
	Freeport	PDH	750,000	Restarting
	Orange	Cracker	680,000	Restarting
Braskem	Freeport	PP	360,000	Restarting
	La Porte	PP	400,000	Restarting
	La Porte	PP	450,000	Restarting
Motiva Chemicals	Port Arthur	Cracker	635,000	Restarting
Baystar Polymers	Bayport	HDPE	408,000	Restarting
Flint Hills Resources	Houston	PDH	658,000	Restarting
ExxonMobil	Beaumont	Cracker	826,000	Operational
		HDPE	225,000	Operational
		LDPE	240,000	Operational
		LLDPE	1,190,000	Operational
	Baytown	Cracker (3 units)	3,800,000	Restarting
	Baytown	PP	800,000	Restarting

Meanwhile, many plants remain shut at the time of this report. Industry experts said that some issues are not visible at the preliminary inspections, but only can be detected once the plant is up running.

Many of the downstream PP, PE, and PVC plants are waiting for upstream crackers to restart. However, it is believed that US producers would prioritize local buyers and clear backlogs to the South American market once productions stabilize, from which it would take several months before US cargoes emerge in the Asia market again.

The list of the currently offline plants are as follows:

Company	Location	Plant	Capacity (tons/year)	Status
Chevron Phillips Chemical	Sweeny	Cracker (3 units)	1,360,000	Shutdown
CP Chem	Pasadena	HDPE	998,000	Shutdown
CP Chem	Port Arthur	Cracker	853,000	Shutdown
Westlake Chemical	Calvert City	Cracker	332,000	Shutdown
		VCM	680,000	Shutdown
		PVC	680,000	Shutdown
	Lake Charles	Cracker	632,000	Shutdown
Eastman Chemical	Longview	Cracker	730,000	Shutdown
INEOS	Chocolate Bayou	Cracker	1,890,000	Shutdown
LyondellBasell	La Porte	Cracker	1,156,000	Shutdown
LyondellBasell	Corpus Christi	Cracker	1,134,000	Shutdown
Total	La Porte	PP	1,150,000	Shutdown
Lotte Chemical	Lake Charles	Cracker	1,000,000	Shutdown
Lotte Chemical	Lake Charles	MEG	700,000	Shutdown
Braskem	Seadrift	PP	225,000	Shutdown
ExxonMobil	Mont Belvieu	mPE	650,000	Shutdown
ExxonMobil		HDPE	650,000	Shutdown
OxyChem	Ingleside	Cracker	544,000	Shutdown
	Ingleside	EDC	680,000	Shutdown
	Deer Park	PVC	1,270,000	Shutdown
	Deer Park	VCM	1,790,000	Shutdown
Shintech	Freeport	PVC	1,450,000	Shutdown
Formosa Plastics USA	Point Comfort	Cracker (3 units)	2,76,000	Shutdown
		HDPE	875,000	Shutdown
		LDPE	400,000	Shutdown
		LLDPE	465,000	Shutdown
		PVC	798,000	Shutdown
		VCM	753,000	Shutdown
		EDC	1,478,000	Shutdown
Dow Chemical	Freeport	Cracker	998,000	Shutdown