BASF idles steam cracker as orders stay low

Ludwigshafen, Germany – BASF is to idle the smaller of its two steam crackers at its Ludwigshafen site due to continuing weak demand. The temporary shutdown of the cracker, which has an annual capacity of 220 kilotonnes per annum of ethylene, is planned for the middle of April and will last at least three months.

According to BASF, a total of five production lines are currently idled at its Ludwigshafen Verbund site, and an additional 60 production lines are operating at very low capacity utilisation rates. The company added that it has reduced its production capacities worldwide by more than 25%.

“Demand from key internal customers in our Production Verbund has unfortunately remained low over the past weeks,” said Dr. Albert Heuser, President of BASF’s Petrochemicals division. “We do not expect any improvement in the foreseeable future, for example for production lines that serve the automotive industry. We are therefore tailoring production to reflect demand and to reduce costs.”

Employees from the steam cracker can be transferred to other production plants at the site for the time being. Since first implementing capacity reductions in November, BASF has been using flexible working time arrangements wherever possible, which also includes transferring employees between plants with varying capacity utilisation rates.

“At the moment more than 500 employees are already working temporarily in other plants,” explained Dr. Bernhard Nick, manager of the Ludwigshafen site. "This is the main reason why we have so far been able to avoid short-time working here in Ludwigshafen. However, this possibility will soon be exhausted if the situation does not improve.”

In January, the company's management reached a provisional agreement with employee representatives that will allow the rapid introduction of short-time working in Ludwigshafen if necessary.

The steam cracker uses steam to “crack” naphtha at a temperature of about 850°C. Among other products, this produces ethylene and propylene - fedstock chemicals for many BASF products including plastics and paints.