Capacity Ledger

Who Tells You a Plant Went Down?

Olin's vinyl chloride monomer plant at Freeport stopped in the second quarter, took $40.1 million out of the segment, and is still running at reduced rates. No announcement anywhere. Everything that moved since Thursday, plus the tonnage question Celanese answers tomorrow night.


A vinyl chloride monomer plant in Freeport, Texas stopped running at some point in the second quarter.

No press release went out. No 8-K item, no customer letter that reached any public route we could find.

The unit's first appearance in the record is July 30, in a quarterly earnings release, as a $40.1 million hole in a segment that was otherwise having a good quarter.

"How much capacity comes off the market in a quarter that nobody announces?"

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