Chongqing, China – BASF declared force majeure of its MDI production in Chongqing on December 12 as a result of a shortage of natural gas at its syngas supplier.
According to local reports, BASF’s Chongqing site currently has facilities with 400kT/year MDI capacity.
‘The supplier has not yet provided a timeline for restart of the syngas,’ said the announcement.
'We have been communicating with our customers proactively and we shall inform them of the MDI plant restart as soon as syngas supply resumes,’ the announcement added.
Over the past year, China has been pushing the switch from coal to natural gas for fuel as part of its environmental protection efforts, which have led to supply shortage of the latter in several areas.