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Shintech North America (U.S. office in Houston) is investing $1.3 billion to further expand its PVC manufacturing and packaging facilities at its Plaquemine, La., site. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Shintech is  the world’s largest PVC producer.

Already, Shintech Louisiana is scheduled to start up a new 640-million lb/yr VCM plant and a 640-million lb/yr PVC plant by the end of second quarter, which is expected to help reverse the current tight supply situation. This marks the first capacity from a new PVC production line after several years; vs., incremental capacity brought on through debottlenecks of existing production lines.

Moreover, Shintech’s newly announced expansion is expected to boost capacity there by 1.3-billion lb/yr of VCM and 838-million lb/yr of PVC by the end of 2023. The company also is expanding its PVC packaging and warehouse operation in Addis, La. In between the two Shintech expansions, Formosa is scheduled to startup a new 300 million lb/yr PVC production line at its Baton Rouge, LA plant in second quarter 2022.