Wednesday 13 June 2012

Just One Word: Plastics


"Now it’s clear that the potential influence of shale gas on the North American plastics industry is amazing. The full impact hasn’t been felt yet. But if you’ve been paying attention, you can see it on the horizon.

Dow Chemical, Formosa Plastics and and Chevron Phillips already have announced North American expansion plans. ExxonMobil Corp. joined the party June 1, when it disclosed it is considering building two new polyethylene (PE) lines in Mont Belvieu, Texas, as well as a new ethane cracker in Baytown, Texas. ExxonMobil’s new PE lines alone will have combined annual capacity of almost 3 billion pounds.

Just five years ago, experts were predicting that North America was destined to be a net importer of PE. Resin manufacturers were chasing low-cost feedstocks in the Middle East and growing markets in Asia. No one was building new capacity in North America. Now economists talk about how low-cost North American resin could help the economy, including plastics processors."

HT: Joe Lais 

Update: Mr. McGuire must have had a vision of the shale gas future when he told Benjamin in the movie "The Graduate" (see below):

"Just one word: Plastics.  There's a great future in plastics, Ben.  Think about it."

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