Every plant depends on its neighbours
Intermediates, steam and utilities flow across plant boundaries. A shutdown is never a project in its own right, but always one for the whole site.
Industries · Process industry
Basic & Speciality Chemicals
We manage shutdowns and conversions from bulk to fine chemicals – coordinated with the neighbouring plants on site.
- Integrated site
- Plants supply each other with utilities and intermediates
- Lead time
- 6–18 months to the major shutdown
- Batch and continuous
- from bulk production to campaign operation
- 14 clients
- from this industry on our reference list
Market
Pressure on sites and transformation at once
Basic and speciality chemicals in Europe are under double pressure: high energy prices and international competition are depressing capacity utilisation. At the same time, climate targets and regulation demand high investment. Operators therefore set sharp priorities: they invest where availability, efficiency and future viability coincide, and run their other plants as economically as possible.
Technically, the focus is shifting towards defossilisation, electrification of process heat and heat integration across the integrated site. For maintenance and projects this means: existing plants must run reliably while they are being converted and made more efficient in parallel – often at sites where every shutdown affects the neighbouring plants.
At large integrated sites, interface planning decides whether a shutdown stays within its window – or whether the delay spreads across the whole site.
Challenges
What is different here
Batch and continuous at one site
From continuous basic chemicals to campaign-based speciality chemicals with frequent product changes and cleaning between products – two planning logics side by side.
Major-hazard operation
Permit and safety requirements are strict, and recurring inspections set the pace of the dates. Both belong in the plan, not on its fringes.
Scarce specialist resources
Certified welders, specialist trades and inspection bodies are fully booked across Europe. Anyone who secures them late ends up planning around availability instead of around the plant.
Transformation in the shutdown window
Electrification, heat integration and new product routes bring project scopes into shutdowns – with their own engineering and their own delivery dates.
Typical tasks
Your task – and what we offer for it
On the left: what operators in this industry come to us with. On the right: the service that covers it.
A shutdown is coming up
Leadership from the definition phase to closeout and lessons learned – as the operator’s extended arm.
The scope keeps growing
Challenge workshops and a scope freeze that holds – the most expensive activity is the one that should never have been in the shutdown.
The schedule has to work for the whole integrated site
Logic-linked, dynamic detailed schedules, critical path and progress measurement every shift – across plant boundaries.
The work packages have to be right
Work packages that can be executed without queries – with material, scaffolding and permits.
We're electrifying or converting
Schedule, cost and documents for electrification, heat integration and tie-ins – at the right scale.
We want to know where our TAR organisation stands
Objective assessment of the turnaround organisation – 16 analysis elements, with benchmark.
We are short of people for the peak
Schedulers, supervisors, site managers and QA/QC staff – vetted and for exactly the months you need them.
Clients
Clients from this industry
- 3M
- Arlanxeo
- BASF
- Covestro
- DHC Solvent Chemie
- DOMO Chemicals
- Dow
- Evonik
- INEOS
- Lanxess
- Orbia
- SABIC
- UPM
- Vestolit
A selection of our clients in this industry. View all clients
Related services
Shutdown or project?
In this industry we support you in both worlds. From here you can go on to the services that belong to it.
Turnarounds
From the TAR-Check through scope and scheduling to leading the entire shutdown.
Go to servicesCapital projects
From feasibility through estimating and project controls to site management and overall responsibility.
Go to servicesFrequently asked questions
Questions answered
How do you plan a shutdown within an integrated site?
The schedule does not stop at the plant boundary. We coordinate the window with the affected neighbouring plants – utilities supply, intermediates, inventory management and restart belong in the same plan and the same progress report.
Do you also work on smaller standalone plants?
Yes. Not every shutdown is a major turnaround. We scale the roles to the project: from a single person in scheduling for a manageable shutdown to a complete turnaround organisation for a site-wide shutdown.
How do you handle batch and campaign plants?
Unlike in continuous production, cleaning and changeover between products account for a considerable part of the duration here. We plan these steps as activities in their own right, with their own duration, rather than treating them as float.
Do you support electrification and efficiency projects?
Yes. We control tie-ins for electrifying process heat, heat integration and new product routes with our own methods – scheduling, Cost Control and Document Control – whether in the shutdown window or during operation.
Do you work on the operator's side and independently?
Yes. We report to the operator, not to an executing trade – ep-cm is owner-managed and does not belong to any group with executing companies. In basic and speciality chemicals this is particularly noticeable: when plants supply each other with utilities and intermediates, only the operator has the full picture. That is the view we plan from – not that of a single plant and not that of a single trade.
Our glossary explains technical terms from the shutdown and project business – 59 entries, each linked to the relevant service.
From the blog
From the field.
Further reading: an article by our specialists on this topic.
Turnaround · Björn Zubel
Turnaround Leuna 2025: zero accidents, on time, on budget
Over 1,000 work hold points, no accidents, schedule and budget met: what made this turnaround at the Leuna chemical park plannable.
Read articleLet’s talk about
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