Shintech to build new PVC plant in U.S.

Shintech Inc., a subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., has announced plans to build a $1 billion PVC plant in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Shintech will begin construction on the 150-empolyee plant this year, with phase one operations scheduled to start by the end of 2006. The company will build the plant on a 1,725 acre site that once belonged to Ashland Chemical. Shintech chose the site on the basis of labor availability, supplies and transportation links, including a port hub, and some state government incentives, including a property tax rebate and a break on state sales tax for machinery purchases, according to a published report.
The facility, once completed, will be completely vertically integrated, with annual capacities of 1 billion lb. of chlorine, 1.1 billion lb. of caustic soda and 1.65 billion lb. of vinyl chlorine monomer. The new plant will be capable of producing 1.3 billion lb. of PVC per year, a little more than Shintech’s existing plant in Addis, LA, which will remain in production.