Material Insights: Oct. 9, 2012

AKRON, OHIO (Oct. 9, 11:50 a.m. ET) -- Lanxess AG's opening of a new high-tech plastics compounding plant in Gastonia, N.C., is featured in this week's Material Insights video. The 39,000-square-foot plant will make compounds based on nylon and PBT, primarily for the auto market. It represents an investment of $20 million and will create as many as 45 new jobs. It’s the firm’s first high-tech plastics compounding plant in North America. A PVC and ethylene feedstock expansion from Westlake Chemical Corp. also is featured in this week’s video. Houston-based Westlake plans to add almost 200 million pounds of PVC capacity and 180 million pounds of ethylene capacity in Calvert City, Ky. The expansions are part of a more than $200 million project that’s switching the site from propane to ethane feedstock because of new natural gas supplies. The video wraps up with news that Lubrizol Corp. plans to build a new plant making chlorinated PVC resins and compounds in Deer Park, Texas. No jobs or capacity totals were available, but officials with the Wickliffe, Ohio-based firm said the project is a $125 million investment that will serve global building and construction customers.