Indorama US Louisiana cracker to start up in Q4

HOUSTON (ICIS)–An Indorama project to revamp and restart a previously idled cracker in Lake Charles, Louisiana is expected to start up in the fourth quarter, the company said on Monday.

The unit, which is currently in commissioning, should have a full year of production in 2019, the company said in a quarterly earnings release.

Indorama had acquired the non-operational cracker in late 2015 from Occidental Chemical (OxyChem). The cracker, which could process ethane and propane feedstocks to produce 370,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 30,000 tonnes/year of propylene, had been idled in 2001.

Indorama expanded the cracker capacity to produce 420,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 20,000 tonnes/year of propylene.

The cracker had previously been expected to start up in early 2018.

The Indorama cracker is among of a wave of new ethylene capacity in the US Gulf, which includes the recently started ExxonMobil cracker in Baytown, Texas, and a recently-announced planned expansion to a DowDuPont cracker in Freeport, Texas.