Westlake Upbeat on Demand Growth for Plastic Components

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Higher feedstock costs and lower sales volumes took a bite out of Westlake Chemical's (NYSE:WLK) (Houston, Texas) bottom line in the third quarter, but the company remains optimistic about near-term demand, particularly for ingredients used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other plastics-related products. Industrial Info is tracking nearly $1 billion worth of active and proposed projects from Westlake, more than 80% of which is attributed to plant expansions.

Click on the image at right for graph detailing Westlake's active and proposed projects, by project type.

"During the third quarter of 2024, global macroeconomic trends modestly improved from the environment we saw in the second quarter of 2024 with relatively solid and improving conditions in North America, a continuing recovery in Asia, and slow improvement in Europe," said Jean-Marc Gilson, the chief executive officer, of Westlake, in a quarterly earnings-related press release. However, he added: "The pace of the recovery from the recent trough in global industrial and manufacturing activity remains uneven."

Westlake is putting the finishing touches on one of its most significant growth projects: the $350 million expansion of its vinyls complex in Geismar, Louisiana, which is expected to raise production from 1.2 billion to 1.6 billion pounds per year of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). New features are expected to include a cooling tower and an ethylene dichloride (EDC) cracking furnace. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Chemical Processing Project and Plant databases can learn more from a detailed project report and plant profile.

Other projects across Westlake's Louisiana assets include a proposed expansion of a styrene unit at a petrochemicals plant in Sulphur, Louisiana, which currently produces 550 million pounds per year. The expansion is designed to add about 125 million pounds per year through debottlenecking and improvements to key components such as towers, heat exchangers and piping. Westlake also is considering an expansion to its South Plant B in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to increase its production of EDC, VCM and trichloroethane (Tri-2), although this remains in the early analysis phase. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Sulphur and Lake Charles projects.

"During the third quarter of 2024, we experienced extended maintenance outages at our ethylene joint-venture facility, which drove higher purchases of ethylene feedstock, and one of our chlorovinyl facilities," the company said in a press release.

Smaller-scale chemical projects under consideration include capital upgrades to a VCM plant in Calvert City, Kentucky, which produces 1.3 billion pounds per year, and an expansion to a PVC compounding plant in Madison, Mississippi, to bolster capacity by a yet-undetermined amount. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the and projects.

Westlake also is planning a series of improvements to its plastic product-manufacturing side, including a $10 million expansion to a pipe-manufacturing plant in Wichita Falls, Texas, which could nearly quadruple the square footage of a facility that produces pipes made from polyvinyl chloride (PVCO). The company also is considering equipment additions to a plastic pipe fitting plant in Brownsville, Tennessee. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can read detailed reports on the Wichita Falls and Brownsville projects.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project and Plant databases can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.

Subscribers can click here for a full list of detailed reports for active and proposed projects from Westlake.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).