Petrochemical facilities may take weeks to get back to full production.
A S oil refiners reboot, the nation’s chemical makers are still struggling to restart key petrochemical facilities after Hurricane Harvey swamped Texas.
More than half of the country’s output of natural gas-derived ethylene, the primary building block for most plastics, hasn’t come back online almost two weeks after the storm slammed into the Gulf Coast energy complex.
In a report Wednesday, IHS Markit said petrochemical companies are still examining ethylene units for damage and reviewing logistical constraints such as the shortage of trucks in the Houston area after some fleets were decimated by flooding, according to IHS. It could take weeks for chemical makers to bring processing plants back into full production.
“The ethylene market may see a temporary tightening of supply and hence higher prices,” IHS said.
Some makers of propylene, another common building block of plastics, are beginning to reboot facilities in Corpus Christi and Texas City. Those could be running as early as later this week.
Still, at the moment, 41 percent of propylene production assets are still offline, and some facilities in Pasadena, Deer Park, Cedar Bayou and Port Arthur will take longer to bring back up because Harvey poured more rain on those regions.
Harvey knocked out oil refineries all along the Gulf Coast, sidelining about 25 percent of U.S. fuel production.
With refineries restarting, about 15 percent of U.S. production remains offline.