AKRON, OHIO — Expectations of plastics market gains from shale gas are featured in this week's Material Insights video.
At the Global Plastics Summit in Chicago, Dow Chemical Co. executive Greg Jozwiak said that shale-based advantages — such as reshoring — could add as much as 2 percent per year to North American polyethylene demand growth. Berry Plastics Group Inc. executive Scott Farmer said at the even that shale will allow regional processors to add capacity, but he also said that lower resin prices would help their businesses too.
Expansions by Rextac LLC and Advanced Composites Inc. also are featured in this week's video. Shale resources are allowing Rextac to add almost 600 million pounds of polypropylene capacity in Odessa, Texas, by re-opening a new line and building a new one. Auto market growth is prompting Advanced Composites to add almost 75 million pounds of PP compounding capacity at sites in Ohio and Mexico.
The video wraps up with news that resin distribution leader Ravago Holdings Americas has formed Genesis Polymers, a business channel focused on bulk commodity resin sales in North America. The new unit is being created with future North American polyolefin capacity expansions in mind, according to Ravago executive James Duffy.
