(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ida's landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast caused production outages in the heart of the country's chlorine manufacturing industry.
Chlorine was already in short supply after a deep freeze in February knocked facilities offline for weeks. Now, widespread power outages around Baton Rouge, Louisiana may increase prices further, according to Robert Stier, a senior petrochemicals analyst at S&P Global Platts.
“Chlorine is going to get really tight” because of the industry's concentration in the Louisiana area, he said.
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Westlake Chemical Corp. shut two Louisiana facilities that make chlorine over the weekend. An assessment of the storm's impact may take several days, the company said. Formosa Plastics also closed a plant in Baton Rouge, according to ICIS, a data provider.
Chlorine manufacturers also tend to make PVC, a key building material used in pipes, siding and other construction materials. Gulf Coast contracts for PVC were already trading at record highs before the storm, according to ICIS.
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