Plants at the Antwerp Verbund site in Belgium (Photo: BASF)
The 50:50 joint venture BASF Dow HPPO Production in Antwerp is apparently still unable to get the production problems with propylene oxide under control more than a month after they occurred. The resulting bottleneck in the supply of the intermediate product is now also reaching BASF (Ludwigshafen).
As a result, on May 5, 2022, the Ludwigshafen-based group declared force majeure on the further value chain with polyether polyols and PU systems based on them in the EMEA region. For the months of May and June, BASF is therefore not in a position to confirm orders – even the fulfillment of orders that have already been confirmed cannot be guaranteed.