Normal operations resume at Evonik’s C4 plant in Antwerp

According to a statement issued by chemical company Evonik Industries this week, its C4 integrated production facility in Antwerp site was successfully restarted earlier this month. It added that “thanks to the extraordinary performance of the operating team,” the facility was able to resume normal operation in mid-June.

The site in Antwerp is operated by the company’s Performance Intermediates business line and is a major producer of C4-based materials for the rubber, plastics and specialty chemicals markets. Evonik produces a total of 320,000 tonnes of butadiene products in Antwerp and at its facility in Marl, Germany, and sells these to customers in the tyre, paper and plastic industries.

An explosion in the vicinity of the plant on 7 May caused a shutdown of production, and as a result of the production outage, which also affected the supply of raw materials necessary for C4 production in Marl, force majeure was declared two days later. The force majeure declaration was lifted on 13 June.

Evonik Industries reports that the financial impact of the event is covered by insurance. For the Evonik Group, a deductible payment of around 20 million euros remains, and this will be fully reported in second quarter results. The smaller share of the deductible payment is attributable to the Performance Materials segment, the larger share to the Services segment.

Even considering these effects, Evonik expects the Performance Materials segment to report a strong second quarter in 2017, at least on previous quarter levels. For the Group as a whole, Evonik continues to expect another sequential increase in adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.