Indorama Is Planning U.S. Polyester Plant

Thai polyester maker Indorama has approved construction of a 540,000-metric-ton-per-year polyethylene terephthalate plant in the U.S. A spokesman says the firm is still in negotiations over the location. The expansion is expected to bring the company’s North American PET capacity to 2.1 million metric tons by late 2015. In less than a decade, Indorama has become one of the largest U.S. producers of PET. It gained a foothold in the country in 2003 when it purchased a PET plant in Asheboro, N.C. It built a plant in Decatur, Ala., in 2009 and acquired Invista’s North American PET business last year.