27-02-2012

Formosa plastics announces long-term capital Investments

Formosa Plastics Corporation, U.S.A. will be investing more than $1.7 billion in capital equipment and construction at its Point Comfort, Texas site. This investment will increase the security and flexibility of the company’s raw and intermediate material supplies, as well as the reliability and breadth of the company’s products.

The investment consists of a new, grass-roots 800,000 MT/Y olefins cracker, an associated 600,000 MT/Y propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit and a new 300,000 MT/Y low density polyethylene (LDPE) resin plant. It will create an estimated 1800 construction jobs and, once completed, an additional 225 long-term operating and maintenance jobs.

“This will be the third major expansion at the Point Comfort site; it sends a clear signal of our dedication to substantial investment and job creation in the U.S.,” noted company Executive Vice President Mr. C. L. Tseng.

The olefins cracker will take advantage of the increasingly reliable and low-cost domestic natural gas and supply feedstock both to existing production units and the new LDPE unit. The PDH unit will produce additional propylene, increasing operational flexibility. The addition of the country’s newest LDPE resin plant will complement the company’s existing product line of FormoleneÒ polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) and FormolonÒ polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and specialty PVC.

“We anticipate construction completion and start-up in 2016,” added site Vice President/General Manager Randy Smith. “This is a tremendous vote of confidence in the U.S. economy, the State of Texas and the Gulf Coast region’s workforce.”

Details on the units’ specific technologies, costs, start-up dates and contractors are not being released.