Shintech Louisiana, part of the Japanese Shin-Etsu group through Shintech (Houston, Texas / USA; www.shintechinc.com), may be going ahead with the long-planned expansion of its US vinyls production at Plaquemine, Louisiana. At least the state has provided what it calls a “competitive incentive package” worth USD 6.6m for construction, procurement and installation of infrastructure. The funding is payable in four instalments, contingent upon the achievement of certain investment and production benchmarks. Shintech also is expected to tap Louisiana’s “Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption” programmes. To date, the vinyls producer has invested a reported USD 7 bn in its Louisiana operations.

The office of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said the company will spend USD 1.25 bn on the upgrade of chlor-alkali and PVC production and that Shintech also is expanding its PVC packaging and warehouse operation in nearby Addis. In the latest communication at the end of January, no capacity figures were given for the expansion now projected to go onstream in late 2023. In a 2013 announcement (see Plasteurope.com of 28.04.2014), the company said it planned to complete the project in 2015. A subsequent communication said groundbreaking took place in 2018.

Over the past six years, figures for the projected additions have varied. The only constant appears to be that overall PVC capacity at the Plaquemine site should be around 3.2m t/y when the expansion is completed. It does not seem entirely clear, however, that it will ever get off the ground. This may be contingent on how demand develops over the next three years – or longer. The company told the state government that it would “start up the addition, assessing the supply and demand of PVC and caustic soda worldwide.” According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), Shintech currently has US capacity to produce 640,000 t/y of PVC at Plaquemine, 540,000t/y at Addis, both in Louisiana, and 1.45m at Freeport, Texas.