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(ICIS) -- Methanol producer Methanex may
move a second plant from Chile to the US Gulf, a New York stock analyst said on
Wednesday. Methanex said late Tuesday that it would move one of its four
methanol plants in the South American country to a site in southern Lousiana, by
mid-2014.
But Charles Neivert, managing director at Dahlman Rose & Co. in New
York, said he’s been told that the property Methanex purchased in Geismar, about
60 miles south of Baton Rouge, could easily contain two methanol units. “It
looks like there’s at least that possibility,” Neivert said in an
interview.
Neivert sent out a research note on Wednesday saying the move to
Louisiana would begin to resolve Methanex’s recurrent problems in
Chile.
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The Methanex move marks the second announcement in a year of a new
methanol plant operating in the US. In January 2011, it was announced that a
mothballed methanol plant in Beaumont, Texas, would be restarted. That plant,
owned by OCI North America, began making ammonia in December and will begin
making methanol by the end of March.
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Methanex did not immediately return calls on Wednesday. The company’s
release said low North American natural gas prices made Lousiana an attractive
location for making methanol.
Methanex has three idle plants in Punta Arenas,
Chile. Only one Methanex plant there is operating, with a capacity of 850,000
tonnes/year. The three idle plants have capacities between 800,000-975,000
tonnes/year, according to ICIS.
mrcplast.com
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