New PVC Capacity Abounds as Market Continues to Hold Strength

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Investments in new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production capacity have continually gained momentum over the past year with over $600 million in planned project activity currently identified in the United States to begin construction over the next two years. Much of the strength for this industry segment comes from PVC’s versatility in the manufacture of construction materials and the lack of any major capacity additions for the past several years. The construction market has slowed some this year, although most anticipate this is a short term slowdown and that demand for extruded or molded PVC products for the automotive, building and sheeting industry will continue to rise as the overall economy continues to perform strongly.

A significant portion of the planned new capacity will be for specialty grades of PVC such as a new unit being evaluated by Lubrizol Corporation (Cleveland, Ohio). This estimated $50 million project is in the very early stages of development and some design and estimating is being completed by Chemstress Consultant Company (Akron, Ohio) with multiple sites being considered for the new unit including Lubrizol’s Deer Park, Texas plant site. Another project that will produce specialty additives for PVC is entering the construction phase at the site of Kaneka Texas Corporation (Pasadena, Texas), with an investment value of nearly $20 million. Gray Construction Company (Lexington, Kentucky) is providing engineering and construction services for the project and current plans call for the project to be complete by the end of the year.

Formosa Plastics Corporation USA (Livingston, New Jersey) is planning to begin construction late this summer on a nearly $300 million specialty PVC unit addition at its site located in Point Comfort, Texas. New PVC capacity isn’t limited to Texas and the Gulf Coast region, Noveon Incorporated (Brecksville, Ohio) has selected CFW Associated Engineers Incorporated (Louisville, Kentucky) to expand its PVC plant in Louisville, Kentucky, which is expected to be complete and online by the end of this summer.

This segment of the chemical processing industry (CPI) appears to have successfully overcome the increased cost of energy and feedstock of recent years. The nearly $600 million currently being tracked as part of Industrial Info’s North American Industrial Project Database comes in spite of several major PVC capacity projects nearing completion this year by Shintech Incorporated and Oxyvinyls LP, which combined, will add an estimated one billion pounds of new PVC capacity to the market in 2007.

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