Royal DSM announced Oct. 29 a maintenance shutdown of its vitamin E plant in Sisseln, Switzerland, during parts of January and February 2021.

This planned maintenance work, originally scheduled for August 2020, had been deferred to the latest possible time in order to secure continuation of supply, according to DSM. The postponement was necessary as the COVID-19 crisis and the flooding of the Yangtze River in China's Wuhan area delayed the previously announced upgrade and subsequent startup of the vitamin E-plant owned by the DSM-Nenter joint venture (Yimante) in China.

After a long production interruption, the startup at Yimante is now expected to occur by the end of December 2020, DSM said. Output is planned to gradually ramp up during the course of 2021 toward the maximum installed nameplate capacity, which is currently 16 kilotons of vitamin E oil.

DSM expects the Yimante output to compensate for the volume gap from its Sisseln plant in the first quarter of 2021 and said it will do its utmost to honor existing contracts for its customers.