MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shintech has not yet chosen a new target startup date for its new 500,000 mt/year cracker in Plaquemine, Louisiana, said Spglobal.
Shintech is in the "commissioning phase ... making alternations and fine-tuning any flaws found in the course of the work thus far," an executive said during the call , according to a transcript on Shintech parent company Shin-Etsu's website.
Contractor issues last summer caused a construction slowdown on the $1.4 billion project that delayed its original mid-2018 startup. Shintech, the largest US PVC producer, had expected to wrap up construction and possibly start up by the end of 2018, but the process of testing all systems pre-startup remains underway.
The cracker will expand Shintech's in-house feedstock output and reduce ethylene purchases from other producers.
Shintech is not alone in significant project delays. Sasol also had planned to start up its new 1.5 million mt/year cracker at its Lake Charles, Louisiana, complex, along with a new 470,000 mt/year linear low density polyethylene plant by the end of 2018, but incomplete engineering work, weather issues and productivity losses pushed the cracker startup to July this year. The company announced this week that the LLDPE plant had reached on-spec status, about two months late.
Sasol will start up a new 420,000 mt/year low density PE plant and a 300,000 mt/year ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant later this year.
MRC