Ethylene plants start up in the US

US petrochemical makers are bringing a large slug of ethylene capacity online. Indorama Ventures has started up an ethylene cracker in Westlake, Louisiana, with capacity of 440,000 metric tons (t) per year. The facility had been closed since 2001, and Indorama revamped it to bring it back online. The output will back integrate Indorama’s ethylene oxide and glycol plant in Clear Lake, Texas, and the ethylene oxide–propylene oxide plant in Port Neches, Texas, that it recently acquired from Huntsman. Work on the cracker was completed last May, but Indorama didn’t start it immediately because of the availability of cheap ethylene. In another back integration, Shintech is starting up a 500,000 t ethylene cracker in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The plant will supply raw materials for its polyvinyl chloride business. Another vinyls producer, Formosa Plastics, is opening a cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, where it will bring a low-density polyethylene unit online in April. And an expansion at Dow’s Freeport, Texas, cracker will add another 500,000 t of ethylene capacity during the second quarter.