A fire at BASF’s Ludwigshafen Headquarters on October 17th, 2016 has killed three people and injured several. BASF reported the explosion happened during work on a pipeline which transported raw materials.
Due to the blast, two steamcrackers at BASF were taken offline because of an interruption in raw material supply. Last Wednesday BASF reported that both steamcrackers will be gradually restarted, a process which could take several days while excess gases will be burned off through flaring.
The steamcrackers are responsible for breaking down naphtha which is the first stage of production for many chemicals including ethylene, propylene, butadiene, pyrolysis, gasoline and hydrogen. BASF has declared Force Majeure for the purchase of naphtha, ethylene and propylene. At least 24 plants have been shut down for lack of these precursors in their production. Effects are being reported in productions of 2-EH alcohol, 2-PH alcohol as well as isononanol, affecting supply of monomeric plasticizers, including DINP, DINCH, DPHP and others.
At this time many users of the downstream materials affected by this shutdown are looking at alternative supply chains, and the market is responding to the tightness of raw materials. In Europe, naphtha prices have reportedly risen more than 10%.