A fire occurred Oct. 31 during the start-up of BASF's citral plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany, resulting in the company shutting down the plant and declaring force majeure for its citral and isoprenol-based aroma ingredients.

BASF's vitamin A and E plants also are currently shut down for scheduled routine maintenance. The company said it 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.

Given that the cleaning process, follow-up inspection, repair and restart of the citral plant will take several weeks, BASF said it must 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 from it are being evaluated at the moment. Meanwhile, the company said it is implementing measures to limit the consequences of the situation.

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

BASF, which has approximately 114,000 employees, portfolio is organized into five segments: chemicals, performance products, functional materials and solutions, agricultural solutions and oil and gas.