Czech petrochemical plants restart as floods subside

Czech chemical plants, closed down last week in the face of the devastating floods spreading across central Europe, are struggling to re-launch production as the flood waters recede.
Some, like the polystyrene and synthetic rubber units of the Polish Synthos group at Kralupy and Vltavou, which shut down on 3 June as the River Vltava burst its banks, began a phased restart this week.
In a brief stock market announcement on Tuesday (11/6), Synthos, based in Oświęcim, Poland, said that the Kralupy facility had suffered “no significant material damage” as a result of the floods.
However, the subsidiary warned of considerable difficulties in (getting) supplies of raw materials and shipping products in the short term due to widespread infrastructure disruption. Flood waters badly damaged roads and railways in Germany and Austria as well as across the Czech Republic, the firm pointed out.
Synthos explained that the Kralupy shutdown was ordered after flood waters threatened a pumping station essential to the operation of its different chemical plants at the site.
Meanwhile, the Neratovice plant of Polish owned PVC producer Spolana, close to Prague, was affected by the rising waters of the River Elbe that flows alongside the industrial site. On Tuesday, a spokesman was quoted as telling the Czech ČTK news agency that Spolana would not resume production until the site had received a thorough inspection.
But the Neratovice site has not suffered the same extent of flooding damage this time as it did during the severe inundation of parts of the region back in 2002, the spokesman said. At that time, the firm was widely criticised locally after chemicals leaked into atmosphere and the flooded river.
It has decided to suspend raw material procurement and product collection at least until 20 June.
The Spolchemie chemicals plant at Usti nad Labem, also near the Elbe, began to restart some production last weekend after it escaped serious flooding. The firm said that thanks to a phased shutdown of the entire site, the impact of the flood was kept to a minimum.
On Tuesday, although the level of river level remained at 7 metres, Spolchemie reported it had been able to resume manufacturing fully and was taking orders once more.