- Braskem (NYSE:BAK), Latin America’s biggest petrochemical maker, says it will decide soon whether to build a plant in Texas or Pennsylvania to convert low-cost natural gas into polypropylene used in plastic packaging and car parts.
- The factory would produce at least 1B lbs./year of resin and would be the U.S. polypropylene industry’s first world-scale project in 12 years, according to a BAK executive; preliminary engineering is under way for construction at existing BAK sites in either La Porte, Tex., or Marcus Hook, Pa.
- The prospects for a Pennsylvania plant may hinge on whether Sunoco Logistics Partners (NYSE:SXL) goes ahead at an adjacent site with its proposed plant for converting propane into propylene; Dow Chemical and others are building similar plants on the Texas coast.