Shintech to invest $3.4 billion in US vinyl chemicals

Betting on a recovery in the vinyl industry, Shintech, the US arm of Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical, plans to spend $3.4 billion to expand chlor-alkali, ethylene, and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) capacity at its site in Plaquemine, Louisiana.A new ethylene cracker at the site will have 625,000 metric tons (t) of annual capacity. A new plant to make VCM, the monomer used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin, will have an annual capacity of 500,000 t. And the chlor-alkali unit will have 310,000 t of caustic soda and 280,000 t of chlorine output. Shintech expects to complete the project by the end of 2030.The investment shouldn’t come as a surprise. In 2024, the company filed permits with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for an ethylene cracker with 500,000 t of capacity as well as plants for making chlor-alkali, vinyl chloride, and ethylene dichloride, the immediate precursor to vinyl chloride.Shintech has been investing heavily in Plaquemine in recent years. In 2020 it started up its first ethylene cracker there to back integrate its vinyl production. That plant cost $1.4 billion. In 2024 the firm wrapped up a $1.25 billion investment to expand PVC production at the site.Brian Newsome, vice president for global chlor-alkali markets at Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS, a consulting firm, points out that the new investment is for PVC raw materials and doesn’t include the polymer itself. “Shintech has an excess of PVC production, and this announcement allows them to be balanced in terms of having the VCM,