24 July 2018
DETAILS
(Chairman and Founder: Chihiro Kanagawa),
a subsidiary of
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. in the U.S.,
has begun to construct a new integrated plant
to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from salt.
The new plant will be on industrial site
developed by Shintech,
located next to Shintech's existing plant
in Plaquemine, Louisiana.
Shintech obtained permits to build
a plant capable of producing
* 1.9 billion pounds (860 thousand tons)
per year of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM),
the raw material of PVC, and
* 660 thousand tons per year of caustic soda,
and has commenced construction of the first phase of the plan.
The first phase will increase production capacity by
* 640 million pounds (290 thousand tons) of PVC per year and
* 270 thousand tons of caustic soda per year.
The amount of this investment is expected
to be $1.49 billion, which Shintech will fund by itself.
Completion of the construction
is targeted for the end of 2020.
Annual production capacity
after the completion of the first phase will be
* 7.14 billion pounds (3,240 thousand tons per year) of PVC
* and 1,570 thousand tons of caustic soda per year.
Shintech, which commenced PVC production
in the state of Texas in 1974,
established its business foundation in the country
where country risk appeared to be relatively low.
The company owns a vast amount of property
in Plaquemine, Louisiana.
Shintech has received strong support and understanding
from both state and local governments in Louisiana
while establishing favorable relationships
with local communities.
When Shintech decided to construct
an integrated production facility for PVC in Louisiana in 2004,
very few expected that shale gas and shale oil
would turn around the energy and feedstock situation
in the U.S the way it turns out today.
The advancement of shale gas and shale oil
thereafter in the U.S. has been astonishing.
At present, ethylene using local natural gas
as a raw material has established
its competitive advantage in comparison with
ethylene using highly priced crude oil
as a raw material,
and this has boosted Shintech's competitiveness
in terms of procurement costs.
Since the completion of the
integrated PVC production plant in Plaquemine,
Louisiana in 2008, Shintech has expanded
and raised production capacity three times
and is now building
an ethylene plant.
Meanwhile, world demand for PVC has increased
almost in line with global GDP growth.
According to industry data, world demand for PVC
reached 43 million tons per year in 2017.
In the meantime, lagging PVC supply capacity
compared to growth in demand increases
the operation rate of PVC producing facilities.
It is expected that this trend will continue in the future.
Similarly, global demand of 77 million tons
of caustic soda per year in 2017
has recently been outpacing supply,
and this trend is expected to continue.
Shintech will leverage the advantage
of favorable raw material economics
in the U.S. to steadily meet increasing demand
in the U.S. and the rest of the world,
with plans to further increase its capacity
in a timely manner.
| For inquires about this matter, please contact: |
| Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. Public Relations Dept. Tetsuya Koishikawa Tel: 03-3246-5091, or from outside Japan: 81-3-3246-5091 Fax: 03-3246-5096, or from outside Japan: 81-3-3246-5096 e-mail: sec-pr@shinetsu.jp www.shinetsu.co.jp |
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
