Dutch plastics, chemical and refining major LyondellBasell (Rotterdam; www.lyondellbasell.com) informed customers on 28 October of a force majeure for HDPE from its Polish site in Plock. Grades affected include "ACP 9240 Plus" and "ACP 9255 Plus", both of which are used for PE blown film.

A technical issue involving the JV Basell Orlen plant's extruder resulted in the decision to stop extrusion before finally shutting down full operations 24 October. The HDPE plant in Plock is jointly run with Polish petrochemicals group PKN Orlen(Plock / Poland; www.orlen.pl) and, according to Plasteurope.com database Polyglobe (www.polyglobe.net), has a capacity of 320,000 t/y.

The company anticipates the shutdown will last at least 25 days. Thus, due to the unforeseen technical problem at the facility, LyondellBasell has said it may not be possible to deliver the respective HDPE grade in time or they may be forced to allocate the grade based on availability.