AdvanSix on Jan. 19 announced that it has experienced a process-based operational disruption at its Frankford, Pa., manufacturing site. As a result, phenol and acetone production at the Frankford facility, as well as production at its Hopewell and Chesterfield, Va., facilities, have been reduced.
“The operational disruption was at Frankford but, as referenced in the press release, production at Hopewell, where we make ammonium sulfate, has also been impacted,” a company spokesperson told Green Markets. “We have taken actions to ensure we will have adequate granular ammonium sulfate available for our customers for the upcoming spring domestic season.”
The company said there have been no health, safety, and environmental issues associated with the event.
“We are keenly focused on the safe return of our operations to target rates and working collaboratively with our customers to mitigate the impact of our reduced output on their operations,” said Erin Kane, AdvanSix President and CEO. “We are confident in our action plan at Frankford and our ability to enable a return to planned utilization rates across our integrated value chain by the end of January. We have also taken the opportunity to pull forward planned maintenance work at our Hopewell facility originally scheduled for later in the first quarter.”
The company expects to incur an approximate $18-$23 million unfavorable impact to pre-tax income in the first quarter, including the unfavorable impact of fixed cost absorption, lost sales, and incremental cost to purchase replacement product. The unplanned interruption did not have a material impact on fourth-quarter 2023 results.