U.S., Canada Expect 28 Grassroot Chemical Processing Plants to Begin Commercial Operations in 2013

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Industrial Info is currently tracking 28 plants in the U.S. and Canadian Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) that are in planning, engineering or construction stages and are set to begin commercial operations in 2013. The construction value of these 28 plants is estimated to be about $1.1 billion.

More than half of these plants (17) already have reached the construction phase and have the greatest potential of starting up this year. Another six plants have received funding approval and are completing the remaining steps necessary to begin construction in the coming months. The remaining five plants are still waiting to receive capital approval, increasing the odds that many of these will be delayed, cancelled or placed on hold.

The Southwest region of the U.S. is leading the way, with seven plants expected to begin manufacturing by the end of the 2013. While this is not surprising for the CPI, which usually centers its activity around the Gulf Coast, the Midwest region is not too far behind, with six plants in five states. This is primarily due to companies taking advantage of the low cost of natural gas, because infrastructure is already in place to pipe the natural gas into these regions from the Bakken Shale. Several of the plants located in the Midwest will be industrial gas plants, which are frequently built on other industrial plants' sites to form a symbiotic relationship, giving gas to a larger production plant or utilizing a by-product from the host plant to produce a gas. Chaparrell Energy LLC (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) has been building a carbon dioxide compression plant in Coffeyville, Kansas, that utilizes the carbon dioxide from a neighboring fertilizer plant as a feedstock. Construction on the $35 million plant started early last year, and it is expected to become operational in the next month or two.

What some may consider even more surprising is that the Rocky Mountains region has seen an increase in chemical activity, with five new plants planned to begin manufacturing operations in 2013. Since the five new plants produce a variety of products, the higher-than-average grassroot and brownfield plant activity seem to be an anomaly; three of the plants already are under construction.

Natronx Technologies LLC (Princeton, New Jersey), a joint venture between Church and Dwight, FMC and Tata, began construction on a grassroot dry sorbents plant in mid-2012, located in Green River, Wyoming. The $60 million plant is expected to produce 450,000 tons per year of sodium bicarbonate and trona sorbents when it starts manufacturing in the summer of 2013.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.