LyondellBasell Industries plans to build a polyethylene resin plant at one of its Texas locations.
The new plant could be in a region that includes the firm's existing PE sites in Matagaorda and Victoria, CEO Bob Patel said in an Aug. 21 article on the web site of the Houston Chronicle.
Patel added that the site could be a combination greenfield-brownfield project. Houston-based LyondellBasell is in the midst of massive capacity expansions for ethylene feedstock. Those expansions are the result of newfound supplies of shale-based natural gas throughout North American.
LyondellBasell is in the process of firing up two new cracking furnaces in Channelview, Texas, that will add 250 million pounds of annual ethylene capacity there. In 2014, the firm added 800 million pounds of ethylene capacity in LaPorte, Texas. Another 800 million-pound capacity expansion will be completed in Corpus Christi, Texas, by mid-2016.
Officials also are reviewing a possible 550-million-pound-per-year ethylene boost in Channelview. Company officials could not be reached for comment on the new PE plant.
LyondellBasell ranks as North America's largest polyolefins maker and as one of the largest in the world. In the first half of 2015, the firm recorded a profit of almost $2.5 billion, up almost 18 percent vs. the first half of 2014. The profit gain was realized even as sales fell 25 percent to $17.3 billion, mainly because of lower selling prices for its products.
LyondellBasell's Olefins & Polyolefins-Americas unit saw its PE sales volume in pounds grow almost 4 percent in the first half to almost 2.8 billion pounds. The unit's PP sales jumped more than 3 percent in the same comparison to more than 1.2 billion pounds.
