Basell Will Restart Texas Polypropylene

Basell Polyolefins will restart a 220,000-metric-ton-per-year polypropylene plant in Bayport, Texas, idle since 2001, by the second quarter of 2008. The facility is home to two other polypropylene plants with combined capacity of 530,000 metric tons. "Restarting the Bayport plant is an extremely cost-effective way to add capacity," says Michael Mulrooney, president of Basell Polyolefins North America. The company acknowledges slow growth in the North American polypropylene business, but it expects to substitute the plastic for more expensive materials such as metal and engineering polymers.