Alpek SAB de CV says it expects to restart a feedstocks plant in Altamira, Mexico, damaged in a July 15, within four to eight weeks.
Alpek CEO Jose Valdez said on a July 19 earnings call that it will be able to restart the purified terephthalic acid unit in four to eight weeks, according to a report from the ICIS news service.
The fire was at one of the site's two PTA units, which has annual production capacity of more than 1 billion pounds.
The fire's damage was largely contained to wiring, piping, valves and pumps, according to Valdez. Monterrey-based Alpek had replacements on hand for most of the damaged parts, and it has been able to secure parts that it did not already have.
“Major equipment is in good shape, as well as the structures in the plant,” Valdez said.
Phil Marshall, PET head at the Wood Mackenzie consulting firm in Houston, said the outage “is likely to negatively impact PET resin production in the Americas region as well as in Europe.”
“This event comes at a particularly critical time for the Americas and European PET resin markets, as both regions have been experiencing critically tight PET resin supply due to both PET resin and PTA plant outages,” Marshall said.