Indorama Ventures (IVL, Bangkok / Thailand; www.indorama.net) is to almost double PET production capacity at its Rotterdam site to 390,000 t/y through the addition of an additional production line with a capacity of 190,000 t/y. The company said the cost of the expansion was being reduced through the use of existing infrastructure, utilities and a tank farm at the facility, which is owned and operated by subsidiary, Indorama Polymers Rotterdam. A company spokesman has confirmed to Plasteurope.com that Indorama bought a 24 MW power plant, silos and logistics facilities at the site. Work is expected to be completed and production to begin by the first quarter of 2012.

The expansion is being implemented to increase market share in Europe, to fully integrate with PTA capacity of 350,000 t/y and utilities at the same location and benefit from economies of scale, Indorama said. Overall PET production across Europe has fallen in recent years through the closure and idling of a number of plants across the continent.

Indorama acquired a number of PET and PTA assets in April 2008 from Eastman Chemical (Kingsport, Tennessee / USA; www.eastman.com) for EUR 224m. These included the Rotterdam site and a PET facility in the UK – see Plasteurope.com of 09.04.2008. In March 2010 a joint venture of Indorama and Ottana Energia (Ottana / Italy; www.ottanaenergia.com) announced that it was to acquire the PET and PTA production facilities of Equipolymers (Horgen / Switzerland; www.equipolymers.com) for an undisclosed sum – see Plasteurope.com of 26.03.2010.