The extremely tight supply situation on the European acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) market is set to become even tighter. In addition to the existing bottlenecks, Versalis (Milan / Italy; www.versalis.eni.com) will not be able to fulfil all supply agreements until at least the end of Q1 2021, and will also have to allocate quantities, due to production restrictions. The Italian producer announced in a customer letter that it is having to reduce its ABS production by about half in January and February 2021 because of the limited supply of acrylonitrile (ACN), following the force majeure of a supplier.

Versalis has ABS production with an output capacity of 65,000 t/y in Mantua, according to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net). The capacity is set to be increased by 30,000 t/y, but completion of the planned expansion will be delayed until the fourth quarter of 2021, according to media reports. The European market for ABS has already been suffering from supply shortages for months now, after plant maintenance and, above all, the absence of imports from Asia significantly reduced supply and drove up prices sharply (see Plasteurope.com of 03.12.2020).

European ACN production is currently severely affected by the force majeure of Ineos Nitriles (see Plasteurope.com of 14.12.2020). The loss of the plant in Worringen near Cologne / Germany reduces the available capacities in Western Europe by 53%, according to Polyglobe. In Europe – excluding those in Turkey and Russia – only the plant of the former DSM division AnQore (Sittard / Netherlands; www.anqore.com) is still in operation.