On October 31, a fire occurred during the startup of the Citral plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Consequently, BASF had to shut down the plant and had to declare Force Majeure for its Citral and Isoprenol based aroma ingredients.

BASF’s Vitamin A and E plants are currently also shut down for scheduled, routine maintenance. The company will only be able to restart these plants once supply of Citral is re-established and the corresponding intermediates for vitamin A and E become available.

As the cleaning process, follow-up inspection, repair and restart of the Citral plant will take several weeks, BASF is forced to extend the Force Majeure to Vitamin A and E and, in consequence, to several carotenoid products.

The impact of the Force Majeure situation as well as the effects for customers resulting therefrom are being evaluated at the moment. Meanwhile, BASF is implementing measures to limit the consequences of the situation.

BASF will continuously inform its customers about the development and the details regarding the supply capability of the affected products.

For more information, visit www.basf.com.