Formosa Makes Progress with VCM Expansion in Texas

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Formosa Plastics Corporation, USA (Formosa) (Livingston, New Jersey), a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group (Twain), is in the middle of an expansion project at its Point Comfort, Texas plastics plant that will increase the capacity of their existing 840 million pound per year vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) production unit. Construction for the estimated $25 million expansion began earlier this year and current project schedules indicate completion during the second quarter of next year.

Formosa is managing construction of this project with its own staff and has awarded multiple construction contracts to execute this project. The focus of this project is to perform several process debottlenecks, retrofits, and additions to achieve an overall increase in production capacity.

Globally Industrialinfo.com is tracking ten expansion or grassroot VCM projects that are still pending construction kick-off. Only two of those projects are based in North America and the majority located in Asia or Europe. All total these projects represent approximately one billion in capital spending over the next two years. The primary end use for VCM is in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which suffered several set backs over the last two years in pricing and demand. As PVC markets appear to be gaining strength again and recovery is in sight, capacity utilization for VCM will rise and pricing with it.

Formosa's Point Comfort plant employs over 1,600 people, covers approximately 1,800 acres and produces a spectrum of olefin products including ethylene, polyethylene, propylene, polypropylene, and others.