US Dow Texas cracker over 95% mechanically complete

NEW YORK (ICIS)–US-based Dow Chemical’s 1.5m tonne/year ethane cracker in Freeport, Texas, is more than 95% mechanically complete, a senior executive said on Thursday.

“Texas-9 is on track … We crossed 95% mechanical completion and greater than 50% of the unit operations inside that plant are already in the commissioning and start-up [phase] … It’s really coming together strong,” said Jim Fitterling, Dow president and chief operating officer on the company’s fourth-quarter conference call.

Fitterling responded to an analyst’s question on whether the cracker is on track for completion in mid-2017. While Dow did not specify a timeframe on the conference call, it had targeted completion of the cracker by the second quarter of 2017.

Downstream from the cracker will be 400,000 tonnes/year of Dow’s ELITE polyethylene (PE); 350,000 tonnes/year of low density PE (LDPE); 320,000 tonnes/year of elastomers; and 200,000 tonnes/year of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM).