ExxonMobil Chemical will add almost 1 billion pounds of capacity for polypropylene resin in Baton Rouge, La., by the end of the year.
Houston-based ExxonMobil will spend more than $500 million on the project, which will double the site's PP capacity, a company spokesman said in an email to Plastics News. The spokesman added that the investment will be the firm's largest in Baton Rouge in the past decade.
ExxonMobil first announced the expansion in early 2019. Officials said at the time that the project would create up to 600 jobs during construction and 65 permanent jobs once completed.
North American PP supplies will get another boost this year when Inter Pipeline Ltd.'s Heartland Petrochemical Complex brings more than 1 billion pounds of new capacity online in Strathcona County, Alberta.
Earlier this year, ExxonMobil's Gulf Coast Growth Ventures joint venture started production at two new polyethylene resin units in Corpus Christi, Texas. GCGV is a 50-50 joint venture between ExxonMobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two PE units have combined annual production capacity of almost 3 billion pounds.
ExxonMobil also is a founding member of the Houston Recycling Collaboration, a partnership announced in February with the goal of improving the recycling rate in the fourth-largest city in the U.S. Resin maker LyondellBasell Industries, Houston city government, chemical recycler Cyclyx International and solid waste manager FCC Environmental Services also are members of the HRC.
