Alpek Polyester declares Force Majeure For the UK PET Resin Supply

Europe: Alpek Polyester has announced force majeure for the supply of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Resin from its plant in Wilton (Wilton, UK) amid a shortage of raw materials supplies. This 220ktpa PET Resin facility in the UK was running at a reduced capacity due to low margins, similar to other PET Resin facilities in Europe.

Alpek is Latin America's second-biggest petrochemical firm and the largest in Mexico. It is one of the top producers of PET Resin and Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) in the world.

The current market condition in the UK is confronting a raw material constraint due to the reduced operating rate of PTA units amidst low profits. Additionally, this resulted in a regional lack of feedstock requirements to keep the PET Resin facilities operating efficiently. Therefore, the UK PET Resin Supply has declared a state of force majeure due to the lower operating rates that may result in supply interruptions for PET Resin in the coming days. However, this abrupt declaration of force majeure may result in a shortage of these products for the importing nations as well.

In the UK market, PET Resin and PTA prices were stable due to the decline in demand outlook. In addition, the bottling and beverage industries continued to struggle, and downstream packaging department demand reported flat offtakes. As a result, our pricing team estimated the price of PET Resin in the UK for the week ending 10th February to be roughly USD 1306/MT on an FD Norwich basis.

In conclusion, the Alpek Polyester force majeure may have an effect that may increase the price of PET Resin and causes a supply constraint in the UK market. As a result, the ChemAnalyst database forecasts an increase in PET Resin's price in the coming weeks. According to an analyst, the market situation for PET Resin would probably change as a result of the impending supply reductions brought on by the declared force majeure.