Over the past few days the INEOS VCM and PVC plants have suffered several unforeseen events outside of the Company’s control

INEOS ChlorVinyls has used every effort possible to avoid these issues affecting customers and their orders, but the recent major power failure at our Rafnes industrial site has significantly interrupted our supply of both ethylene and VCM. This will affect our PVC production at Aycliffe, Porsgrunn, Stenungsund and Wilhelmshaven sites.

In addition, we have encountered production problems at our PVC facility in Schkopau, Germany, which has a direct impact on our availability from this site.

Therefore, INEOS is forced to declare Force Majeure on all VCM from Rafnes and all grades of S-PVC produced in Porsgrunn, Stenungsund, Aycliffe, Wilhelmshaven and Schkopau as from Thursday 16 July 2009.

It has not been possible to anticipate this chain of events, and consequently we are unable to fulfill all customer orders during July and August.

We are working to sort out our plant problems related to both Schkopau and Rafnes and will provide timely updates on the return of these assets.