Rubber industry dodges Ida's worst impacts

For rubber industry players in Hurricane Ida's path, weathering the storm is just one part of the battle.

Getting operations back up and running following shutdowns, flooding and damages is the largest piece.

How long will that take? It's tough to say.

Bill Hyde's hunch is that facilities will be down for several weeks, rather than several days.

"Every one of these storms is different," Hyde, IHS Markit's executive director of olefins and elastomers, told Rubber News. "The winter storm that we had here (in Texas) in February, it was in many ways very different, but in some ways it was similar. It took six weeks for a lot of these units to come back."

When hurricanes battered the Lake Charles, La., and Port Neches, Texas, areas last year, many facilities were down for about a month, he said.

Cabot Corp., which has operations in both Franklin and Ville Platte, La., began safe shutdown of its production facilities before Ida made landfall. By noon on Aug. 28, both plants had been shut down and safely evacuated, according to a company spokeswoman.

Both plants have electricity and are expected to resume operations by Sept. 1, having sustained minimal damage.

“We are fortunate that our employees at our two carbon black facilities located in Franklin and Ville Platte, La., are safe and accounted for after Hurricane Ida,” Cabot said in a statement. “… We’re grateful for the first responders who are helping keep our local communities in Louisiana safe and our thoughts are with all those impacted by Hurricane Ida.”

It’s still too early to tell how long it will take most companies to get operations back online, Hyde said. But given in the size and intensity of the storm, the industry avoided severe impact. Had the storm hit the Lake Charles, La., or Port Neches, Texas, areas like Laura and Delta last year, the impact would have been much greater.

“Most of the rubber capacity was unaffected by this storm,” Hyde said. “It really comes down to the rubber feedstock, butadiene and styrene, primarily.”

Bracing for Ida

Lion Elastomers was among those companies to brace for the strong winds and heavy rains targeting the New Orleans area. The company idled its Geismar, La., site ahead of the storm's arrival and did so, it said, by following the Hurricane Preparedness policies and procedures.

"We are in the process of making initial assessments to the Lion Elastomers Geismar, La., site," Lion said in a statement issued Aug. 30. " … As a detailed assessment is currently underway, the safety of our employees, contractors and the community continue to be our top priorities."

Lion's Texas facilities—in Orange and Port Neches—were unaffected by the storm and continue to operate normally, the statement said.

Meanwhile, major chemical suppliers along the Gulf Coast were prepared for Ida, and had been monitoring it since it began moving through the Gulf of Mexico. They took precautions as it neared production sites in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"Dow sites on the U.S. Gulf Coast have comprehensive and well-defined hurricane preparedness plans that are designed to minimize production interruptions, while protecting the safety and health of our employees, our communities and our environment," Midland, Mich.-based Dow Inc. said in an Aug. 29 statement. "The company remains in close contact with its stakeholders as this situation continues to evolve. Our thoughts are with those in the projected path of the storm."

ExxonMobil, meanwhile, said its refinery and chemical complexes at sites in Texas—Baytown and Beaumont—were operating as normal.

"ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge facilities are adjusting operations and shutting down some units and equipment to ensure safe and stable operations during the hurricane," the company said.

Consulting firm ICIS said the Baton Rouge site makes ethylene, propylene, butadiene, polyethylene, polypropylene and other materials.

ICIS also warned in an Aug. 29 report that Eastern Louisiana has a heavy concentration of plants that make PVC. Vinyl was already selling for "record" prices prior to the storm. Prior to landfall, ICIS reported that plants in the storm's path were responsible for 35 percent of the styrene production in the U.S.

Bouncing back

Ida's impact will be determined by a number of factors that impact the company's ability to bring operations back online.

"So much of it," Hyde said, "depends on how efficiently (the facility) got shut down and what the damage is to the infrastructure, not just in the plant, but the area surrounding the plant."

For companies in Ida's path, that preparation was difficult, according to Hyde, who noted that the storm developed quickly, moving from a Category 1 to a Category 4 hurricane.

How companies brace for hurricanes varies greatly based on the storm's intensity. Category 4 hurricanes require much more preparatory work, Hyde said, and companies may have been on short notice for this level of hurricane.

Electrical outages will play a major role in helping the area—and the rubber industry—rebound in Ida's wake. The Weather Channel reported mid-afternoon Aug. 30 that roughly 1 million people were without power in Louisiana alone.

"That is really the key thing, to get that power back," Hyde said.

Rhoda Miel, Plastics News Staff, contributed to this report.