Corrected: Formosa Plastics delays US PDH project to 2020-21

Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined “Formosa Plastics delays US PDH project to 2020-21” dated 30 March 2017, please read in the 5th paragraph … December 2015 … instead of … December 2016 …. The story was recast to reflect the changes. A corrected story follows.

NEW YORK (ICIS)–Formosa Plastics Corp’s US propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project will be delayed to a targeted 2020-2021 start-up, a company official said on Thursday.

“The PDH unit start-up has been pushed back slightly, to 2020-2021,” said Steve Rice, senior manager, corporate communications, at Formosa Plastics Corp USA

The PDH project in Point Comfort, Texas, will have capacity of 658,000 tonnes/year of propylene, according to ICIS plants and projects.

In December 2016, ICIS reported that construction on Formosa’s PDH plant started but that no recent start-up date had been announced.

Dow Chemical started up its 750,000 tonne/year PDH project in Freeport, Texas in December 2015 and Enterprise Products is aiming for a Q3 2017 start-up of its 750,000 tonne/year PDH project in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

However, many on-purpose propylene projects have been delayed or cancelled on a more challenging outlook for the monomer.

Last year, BASF postponed its 450,000 tonne/year methane-to-methanol-to-propylene (MMTP) project and Ascend Performance Materials put its 1m tonne/year PDH project on hold. In 2015, REXtac cancelled plans for its 300,000 tonne/year PDH project while Enterprise Products shelved its plans for a second PDH unit.

Image: Propylene is the main feedstock for polypropylene (PP), which is used to make plastic containers like the ones in this photo. Source: Monkey Business Images/REX/Shutterstock