US C4 specialist TPC Group (Houston, Texas; www.tpcgrp.com) has announced that it and a number of its subsidiaries have filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

As part of the process, the company, with the support of creditors, said it intends to recapitalise and address liabilities resulting from the fire at its US facility in Port Neches, Texas (see Plasteurope.com of 05.12.2019). The restructuring is expected to eliminate more than USD 950 mn of the USD 1.3 bn in financial liabilities from the company balance sheet, according to TPC.

Operations are anticipated to continue without interruption during the restructuring. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), TPC’s operations in Houston and the Port Neches plant have a butadiene capacity of more than 1.2 mn t/y.

TPC has been through tough times over the past few years, said Edward Dineen, company chairman, president, and CEO, who cited a series of unprecedented events that have caused the “financial strain” on the company. These included the pandemic, supply chain issues, commodity price increases, higher energy costs, and operational challenges resulting from Winter Storm Uri in 2021, and the explosion at the Port Neches plant.