As expected and feared by many market players, first reports of plant closures are coming in. The reasons should be familiar by now: excessively high energy prices and very weak polymer demand since the beginning of the year.

US epoxy resin producer Olin (Clayton, Missouri; www.olin.com) has halted its resin production in Stade, Germany until further notice. The upstream production of bisphenol A feedstock (BPA) is presumably also affected to some extent, though a fairly large proportion is likely supplied to Trinseo’s polycarbonate line.

“Operating the epoxy resin facility at less than 50% operating rates is impractical,” Olin noted. This indicates that the line had already been running at reduced capacity. Justifying the shutdown, the company cited not only high production costs, but also a collapse in demand during the first quarter of the year, a situation that has now been exacerbated by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Selling “incremental volume into a poor-quality market” was not in the company’s interest, it said.