Bayer, Solvay declare force majeure from Hurricane Ike aftermath

In the early morning of Saturday, Sept. 13, Hurricane Ike hit southeast Texas and did an incredible amount of damage to the area. While the Solvay Chemicals (La Porte, TX; www.solvaychemicals.com) and Bayer MaterialScience (Baytown, TX; www.bayermaterialscience.com) plants near Houston escaped without significant damage, many suppliers of raw materials and utilities were impacted, and the damaged infrastructure of the area has made it nearly impossible to supply the sites with raw materials needed to resume production.

Solvay’s hydrogen peroxide plant and sodium percarbonate plant face unplanned downtime that will cost the company at least seven to 10 days of production. They have therefore declared force majeure and will enforce a 75% allocation program for hydrogen peroxide, effective immediately, which may remain in place for an estimated 60 days.

Bayer has also declared force majeure for a large part of production in its Baytown facilities, which affects its polyurethanes, coatings, adhesives, specialties (CaS), and polycarbonates (PCD) business units as well as its Inorganic Basic Chemicals business. The company says that it is presently impossible to foresee how long the production stoppage will last, but is confident the damage will be repaired in coming weeks and that any temporary losses in sales can be made up.