... but hits snag in North America

Hexion's phenolics and forest products division says it is allocating supplies of formaldehyde and formaldehyde-derived products to customers in North America. According to Hexion, operating problems have led two major methanol providers, Southern Chemical and Atlantic Methanol, to allocate supplies of the chemical, formaldehyde's key raw material. A methanol shortage has also affected Celanese, where a spokesman says the company is exercising "voluntary sales control" over acetic acid, vinyl acetate, and acetic anhydride to North American customers at 90% of usual volumes. Over the past few years, a number of U.S.-based methanol producers have shut down because of high natural gas prices. As a result, most consumers now source methanol from plants in Trinidad, Africa, and other foreign sites.