Celanese declares force majeure on acetic acid and VAM in Europe, Americas

LONDON (ICIS)–Celanese has declared force majeure on acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) in the “Western Hemisphere”, which is understood to include the Americas and the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

The producer attributed the force majeure declaration to “operational failures experienced by multiple suppliers of critical raw materials essential to Celanese’s production of these products.”

“Right now, we anticipate that our second quarter U.S. gulf coast production of acetic acid and VAM will be negatively impacted by 15 to 20 percent as a result of these temporary challenges which we are still navigating,” said Mark Murray, senior vice president of the Acetyl Chain at Celanese.

On the Gulf Coast Celanese produces acetic acid and VAM at Clear Lake, Texas and VAM at Bay City, Texas. The status of these plants and the duration of constraints affecting them could not be confirmed at time of writing.

Thumbnail: A major end use for acetic acid and VAM is paint and coatings. (Photo source: Oleksandr Latkun/imageBROKER/Shutterstock)