DALLAS (February 18, 2021) – Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global technology and specialty materials company, today announced that as a result of the impacts of extreme winter weather on Celanese’s operations, as well the unplanned shutdowns and force majeure declarations of many of its suppliers and service providers in the Texas Gulf Coast, Celanese is declaring force majeure with respect to the following products to its customers in the Americas and EMEA:
- Acetic Acid
- Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM)
- Ethyl Acetate
- Acetic Anhydride
- Methyl Acetate
- Vinyl and Acrylic Emulsions
- Redispersible Powders
- Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA)
- Dimethylamine (DMA) and Trimethylamine (TMA)
- Methyl Isobutyl Carbinol (MIBC) and Methyl Isobutyl Ketone (MIBK)
- Paraformaldehyde
Sustained below freezing temperatures at Celanese’s operating sites and those of its suppliers and logistics partners have resulted in the inability of Celanese sites to receive natural gas, electricity, industrial gas, potable and firefighting water and other raw materials necessary to safely and reliably operate the plants. Without access to such utilities, Celanese has been forced to shut down its impacted production facilities until they can be operated safely and consistently. As a result of these shutdowns, Celanese is forced to curtail its western hemisphere production of the above products and declare Force Majeure under its sales contracts.
Pursuant to the terms of applicable sales contracts, Celanese is excused from performance during the term of this Force Majeure event. Celanese is continuing to assess the regional and global impact of this force majeure event, and given that this is a rapidly developing situation, Celanese cannot provide any specific details or timing of the full impact to all customers. Account managers will communicate with customers to discuss allocation volumes as soon as possible.
Celanese will provide notice of when production will resume as we continue to assess the effect of the weather on our production facilities and infrastructure, as well as those of our suppliers and logistics providers.
Celanese regrets the impact this will have on customers and will stay in close communication to minimize the impact of this event.