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.