In Texas, 100,000 tons more of PET and PTA

M&G Chemicals plans to increase the capacity of its Corpus Christi, Texas facility by over 100,000 tons of integrated PET, reaching the total amount of at least 1,100,000 tons of PET. PTA capacity will also be increased by the corresponding amount. The original capacity plan announced for Corpus Christi was 1,000,000 tons of PET and 1,200,000 tons of PTA.

Marco Ghisolfi - M&G Chemicals CEO – said, “We strongly believe in our Corpus Christi project, which is the most advanced ever in this industry. We decided to increase our investment in order to make it even more efficient. Most of the increased capacity has already been committed in the market. A portion of the capacity will also be used to displace our current imports from Mexico.”

This is not the first time that an M&G Chemicals facility exceeds its planned capacity. It already happened in Altamira, Mexico and Suape, Brazil, where the current capacity increased well in excess of 30% versus the initial design capacity.

“Our proprietary technology - added Ghisolfi - is very reliable and powerful, and it allows us to reach unprecedented targets”.

The facility is currently under construction and the opening is scheduled for the second half of 2016. The PET part of the facility is on schedule while a couple of suppliers of critical equipment to PTA are indicating some delays, which are currently being analyzed and consequences assessed. M&G is working on back-up plans to ensure no impact on PET start-up.