Shintech plans second Louisiana cracker

Shintech, the US-based polyvinyl chloride subsidiary of Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical, plans to build an ethylene cracker and vinyl chloride plant in Plaquemine, Louisiana, according to permits filed with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The company intends to build an ethane-based ethylene cracker with 500,000 metric tons (t) of annual capacity. It will also build an integrated vinyl chloride complex that will make chlorine, caustic soda, and vinyl chloride’s immediate raw material, ethylene dichloride, which is made by combining ethylene and chlorine. Shintech built a $1.4 billion ethylene cracker, also with 500,000 t of capacity, in 2019. That plant was part of a wave of US ethylene projects meant to exploit low-cost feedstocks based on natural gas. New builds have now abated, and the only other major US project in the works is a joint venture in Texas between Chevron Phillips Chemical and QatarEnergy.