Dow Chemical Co. recently inaugurated an additional polystyrene production line at its Estireno do Nordeste SA affiliate in Guaruja, Brazil. The 287 million-pound-per-year facility can produce both high-impact and crystal grades. The new line will be used to make high-impact Styron A-Tech grades.
EDN is a PS and styrene monomer producer controlled by Dow since 1996. EDN's site in Guaruj also houses a 154 million-pound-per-year PS line that is being upgraded and will be relaunched in January, focusing its production on general-purpose crystal grades. The investment in both PS lines totaled $50 million.
The project also included deactivating an older, 110 million-pound-per-year PS line.
The facility serves the Mercosul trade region, comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. EDN has another site in Camaçari, Brazil, where it produces styrene monomer.
Gonzalo Barquero, commercial director for Dow's PS business in Latin America, said that the Guaruja site will not operate at full capacity in the short term, due to excess installed capacity for PS resin in the Brazilian market, where Dow claims a 35 percent market share.
According to Clay Dunn, Dow's vice president for the PS business worldwide, the new PS production line in Guaruja is the second to last one Dow intends to launch before 2006. The last line is similar to the one the firm just inaugurated in Brazil and is to start operating in the third quarter of 2002 in Zhangjiagang, China.
