BASF Plans to Increase Ethylene Oxide Capacity in Louisiana

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). BASF Corporation (NYSE: BF) (Budd Lake, New Jersey) plans to increase the ethylene oxide (EO) capacity in one of their units located at the Geismar, Louisiana plant. The project estimated at $9 million, will increase the capacity of the unit to 485 million pounds per year.

In September 2002, the Geismar plant shutdown two (EO) reactors with a total capacity of 270,000 tons due to the immense competitiveness of the U.S. glycol industry. The capacity increase will be on a new unit that came online last year and will allow for the production of EO at a significantly more efficient cost, serving markets such as polyols and surfactants. Engineering has commenced and site preparation should begin this summer with the new capacity coming online by the end of the year.

In 1986, BASF Corporation acquired the Geismar, Louisiana plant and has spent over $1 billion in plant expansions since 1995 making it BASF's largest manufacturing plant in North America and the third largest in the world. An estimated $70 to $80 million is spent annually at the Geismar plant on capital improvements.

BASF Corporation a subsidiary of BASF AG located in Germany employs over 93,000 people with offices located in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. They have a vast product base not limited to the chemical industry but also the biotech, oil and gas, agricultural and nutritional product markets.