Chemical Plant Maintenance Turnaround Spending in Second Quarter Nears $300 Million

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Although not obvious by looking at the weather in the Northeast right now, winter is nearing an end and this means the beginning of many planned chemical plant maintenance turnarounds. Over the last 14 months, Industrialinfo.com has identified ninety-four (94) individual plant or unit maintenance turnarounds planned to kick-off in the second quarter of 2003 at Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) plants located in the U.S. and Canada, representing $277 million in maintenance expenditures.

Click on the image at right to view the Chemical Plant Maintenance Spending Analysis

The spring and early summer is, traditionally, a period when chemical producers plan large plant turnarounds for completing scheduled maintenance, while temperatures are moderate and fuel prices have recovered from the winter season.

As mentioned in a related article published by Industrialinfo.com in December, (See: Industrialinfo.com Is Tracking 60 Chemical Plant Maintenance Turnarounds Planned for the First Quarter of 2003) maintenance spending for 2003 by chemical producers is expected to remain strong as producers focus on energy reliability improvement projects and aging equipment replacements.

Nearly 60% of the $277 million will be spent in the Great Lakes and Southwest marketing regions of the U.S., representing less than half of the total planned maintenance turnarounds. "This concentration of spending is due to the large number of petrochemical producers in the South and the plastic resin producers in the North," commented Trey Hamblet, Chemical Group Manager with Industrialinfo.com. "Petrochemical and resin producers are prone to a large number of turnarounds as a result of the type of reactions they employ and the need to renew catalyst in reactors on a routine or scheduled time frame. The Springs mild temperature and weather also influences plant downtime as it's generally not to cold or too hot," Mr. Hamblet added.