MOSCOW (MRC) -- One of Formosa Plastics' two new polyethylene (PE) plants at its Texas complex is operational, with the second plant and a new 1.5 million mt/year cracker to follow next month, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's statement.
The operational 400,000 mt/year plant can swing between making high density and linear low density polyethylene (HDPE & LLDPE), and the company completed the initial startup in August, according to an updated schedule of projects released late Monday.
Meanwhile, the company's new 400,000 mt/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant is undergoing commissioning and projected to start up next month, along with the new 1.5 million mt/year cracker.
The three plants are part of the first wave of new US petrochemical infrastructure to emerge from the domestic natural gas shale boom, and among the last of 13 new PE plants and eight new crackers to come online from 2017 through the end of this year.
Other plants within that first wave slated to start up by the year-end include Shintech's new 500,000 mt/year cracker at its Plaquemine, Louisiana, complex; Sasol's new 420,000 mt/year LDPE plant at its Lake Charles, Louisiana, complex; and LyondellBasell's new 550,000 mt/year HDPE facility in La Porte, Texas.
Formosa's schedule also said its new 250,000 mt/year polypropylene expansion at Point Comfort will come online in the third quarter of 2021, a year later than what the company had announced in December 2018.
A 130,077 mt/year polyvinyl chloride expansion at the company's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, operations remains in "detailed engineering design" and is slated for steady commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company said.
As MRC informed before, in October 2019, Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp reduced its October average run rate at the 540,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Mailiao refinery to about 70% from more than 87% due to maintenance.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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