A disruption in ethylene supply has led engineering resins maker Ticona to declare force majeure on ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene in Europe.
An outside supplier currently is unable to supply Ticona's Oberhausen, Germany, plant with full rates of ethylene needed to make the firm's GUR-brand UHMW PE, officials with Florence-based Ticona said in a Sept. 18 news release.
The situation will affect all UHMW PE products made in Oberhausen through the end of October, officials added. Ticona also makes UHMW PE at a plant in Bishop, Texas, and plans to launch production of the material in Asia in early 2008.
Ticona ranks as the world's largest acetal maker and produces several other engineering resins. The firm - a unit of Celanese AG of Frankfurt, Germany - posted sales of almost $900 million in 2005.