Dutch plastics, chemical and refining major LyondellBasell (LBI, Rotterdam; www.lyondellbasell.com) has permanently shuttered one of its HDPE production lines at its German site in Wesseling – a step it said it would achieve in Q3. A company spokesperson has confirmed the status to Plasteurope.com. The line, which had a capacity of 100,000 t/y, was the smallest and least efficient at the production site. Earlier in May, LBI had announced its plans to close the line and communicated to customers that nothing would change in terms of the supplying of HDPE – see Plasteurope.com of 17.05.2013.

According to Plasteurope.com database Polyglobe (www.polyglobe.net), LBI is the largest polyolefin producer in Europe with a total capacity of roughly 4.5m t/y. For HDPE in Wesseling the production capacity is at 770,000 t/y even after the shutdown of the small production facility.