Alberta storms hamper Nova PE production

Nova Chemicals Corp. (Calgary, AB) will lose about US$25 to US$50 million after severe storms damaged six third-party ethane facilities in Alberta several weeks ago, the company announced recently.
This translates into lost sales of 70 to 120 million pounds of polyethylene (PE), and 200 to 350 million pounds of ethylene, Nova said.
Right now, the firm’s Joffre, AB manfacturing facility, which uses ethane to produce both PE and ethylene, is only operating at 40% of capacity. However, Nova expects to build up its full supply of ethane for PE and ethylene production by the end of the third quarter of 2005.