LyondellBasell specifies size of new US PE plant

HOUSTON (ICIS)–LyondellBasell’s proposed new polyethylene (PE) plant in Texas will have 1bn lb/year (454,000 tonnes/year) of nameplate capacity, said the CEO of the producer on Friday.

The plant should come on line in the middle part of 2017, said CEO Jim Gallogly during an earnings conference call.

The plant will feature a new PE technology of the company, he said.

“We think it will be a very competitive line, both in terms of the product it makes and the value it brings to capital costs but also, very importantly, this should help us a significant amount in our licensing efforts,” Gallogly said. 

“We are already very strong in low-density polyethylene [LDPE], the best in polypropylene [PP] in our view,” Gallogly said. “This will add another leg to our technology stool that we think is very positive.”

According to an air permit application filed in 2013, LyondellBasell will build the plant at its complex in La Porte, Texas, and construction should start in January 2015.

The company has been discussing the $400m plant in previous earnings calls held throughout the year.

In January during its Q4 2013 earnings call, CEO Jim Gallogly called the technology “a low-pressure new technology that, I think, we may build 0 number 001 in the US”.

Currently at its La Porte complex, LyondellBasell has 355,000 tonnes/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) capacity and 200,000 tonnes/year of low density polyethylene (LDPE), according to the ICIS plants and projects database.