New and Upcoming Resin Expansions

The last two months have seen several resin capacity announcements: BASF Corp., Engineering Plastics, Wyandotte, Mich., opened what it calls the world’s largest plant for nylon 6 in Freeport, Texas. It has capacity of 264 million lb/yr and replaces a facility in Enka, N.C. Fortron Industries LLC, a joint venture of Ticona Engineering Polymers, Florence, Ky., and Kureha Corp. of Japan, completed an expansion of Fortron PPS capacity. It brings the plant capacity to 33 million lb/yr, double its capacity of three years ago and reportedly making it the world’s largest PPS plant. Resin produced there is marketed by Ticona. Victrex plc of the U.K. (U.S. office in W. Conshohocken, Pa.) completed a new plant for Victrex PEEK that adds nearly 3.2 million lb/yr. Solvay Advanced Polymers, Alpharetta, Ga., completed an expansion in Marietta, Ohio, that nearly triples capacity for Radel polyethersulfone and polyphenylsulfone. Next year, Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., plans at least a 50% expansion of capacity for its IntegRex technology to make PET and copolyesters at Calhoun County, S.C. Late next year, Bayer MaterialScience in Germany (U.S. office in Pittsburgh) will complete a world-scale plant for polymer-filled polyether polyols in Antwerp, Belgium. It will have capacity for 120 million lb of polyols for flexible urethane foam. Bayer says a new process makes these polyols with unusually low VOC levels.