Before Hurricane Harvey came along, the country was awash in ethylene with more production coming online along the Gulf Coast this year. Now it’s a different story.
Because many petrochemical plants have shut down in the wake of the storm and its aftermath, around half of the country’s supply has been knocked offline for an uncertain period of time.
As one of the most ubiquitous chemicals on the market, the sudden supply squeeze could have far-reaching consequences. Made from ethane, a byproduct of natural gas production, ethylene and its byproducts are used in a wide array of consumer products — from plastics and rubber to antifreeze and PVC.
According to a recent report in Bloomberg, much of the production capacity for ethylene could be offline for weeks or months — a situation that has turned the chemical into an increasingly rare commodity.
Here’s how the situation currently looks, by the numbers.
40 percent = Global chemical sales that are related to ethylene and its byproducts.
70 percent = The amount of ethylene made in the U.S. that comes from Texas.
2 weeks = The amount of time producers can typically be offline before using up their inventories.
61 percent = Ethylene production in the U.S. that went offline due to Harvey, according to Bloomberg. Other estimates in the days after the storm were between 40 and 50 percent.
300,000 tons = The cumulative loss of ethylene production lost due to Harvey, according to estimates from the American Chemical Council estimates released Friday.
90 percent = The drop in demand for the raw materials used to make ethylene — ethane and butane — since Harvey triggered plant closures.
10 percent = How much of the U.S.’s trucking capacity that has also been disrupted by Harvey. Recovering from transportation and supply chain issues could cause additional headaches for chemical manufacturers, even as production comes back online.
30 percent = U.S. capacity for benzene, propylene and butadiene that was also lost due to plant shutdowns.
