Rohm and Haas Starts Up Major MMA Expansion in Texas

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Rohm and Haas Company (NYSE: ROH) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is in the process of completing a major $40 million expansion (PEC 01007636) of their Methyl Methacrylate Monomer (MMA) unit at the Deer Park, Texas plant (Plant 1002273). This new expansion is expected to increase MMA production capacity by 115,000 metric tons per year increasing the total MMA output to approximately 475,000 metric tons per year. This Deer Park plant is the largest MMA producing plant in the world.

Alliance contractor, Zachry Construction (San Antonio, Texas) provided construction management services and began mechanical and electrical construction earlier this year. Jacobs Engineering Group International (NYSE: JEC) (Pasadena, California) from Houston, Texas provided the engineering services.

Industrialinfo.com first reported this expansion in November of 1999 as part of its North American Industrial Database. At the time, Rohm and Haas was initially defining the project's scope.

Rohm and Haas' Deer Park plant is one of only four U.S. producers of MMA and reports that a majority share of the new MMA capacity will be supplied to ATOFINA for use in its manufacture of acrylic sheet and resins business through a subsidiary called Atoglas. Some of MMA's primary uses include automotive molding and extrusion products, acrylic plastics and resins, surface coatings and as a modifier in polymer products.