DuPontSA poised to win Sabanci approval for new PTA plant

ADANA, Turkey (CNI)--Polyester fibres company DuPontSA hopes shortly to receive board approval from its new sole owner Sabanci for a worldscale purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, it was revealed here.

Richard Stokes, DuPontSA’s vice president sales and marketing and general manager for the PTA, resins and bottles business, said there would be more opportunity for growth under the sole ownership of Sabanci.

Talking to to CNI's sister publication European Chemical News, he said: "The region [Greater Europe] will need a new PTA plant by 2007-08, and one feature of our strategy going forward is to fill that gap. This would have been difficult under DuPont but Sabanci has made a positive step in buying out DuPont and announcing its ambition to grow."

Stokes said that PTA had been identified as a growth area for DuPontSA. He explained that the company's PTA technology gives it a strong position and the decision by BP to postpone indefinitely investment in a new PTA plant in Geleen, Netherlands had increased the need for additional capacity.

"Now DuPont has gone we can take this forward, and expect a decision within the next six months," said Stokes.

He said the investment would cost ‘hundreds of millions of euros’, and that Sabanci’s technology could produce up to 1m tonne/year.

All of DuPontSA’s PTA production is in Wilton, Teesside, UK, where the existing infrastructure and availability of regional grants would make it easier to build a new plant. However, DuPontSA's petrochemicals complex in Adana is another possible location.

DuPontSA currently ships PTA from Wilton to Adana and also has to buy in an additional 40 000 tonne/year in Turkey. An expansion of the T8 PTA production plant in Wilton is under way. Capacity will be raised from 390 000 tonne/year to 500 000 tonne/year, taking the site total from 550 000 tonne/year to 660 000 tonne/year. However, the older T7 unit, which has a capacity of 160 000 tonne/year, will be retired.

DuPontSA is also planning an expansion of its CP5 and SSP units in Adana. The units, which produce bottle grade PET and PET resin for sheeting applications, will be raised from 130 000 tonne/year to 140 000 tonne/year. Additionally, DuPontSA is about to begin construction of a textile pilot plant in Adana at a cost of several million euros. Phase 1 of the unit, which is being built in alliance with Uhde, will be completed in April and Phase 2 in October next year.