DowDupont's new 350,000 mt/year low density polyethylene unit in Plaquemine, Louisiana, has reached full operating rates, Chief Financial Officer Howard Ungerleider said Thursday during the company's quarterly earnings call.
The new plant is among 14 starting up between 2017 and 2019 in the first wave of new petrochemical capacity along the US Gulf Coast to emerge from the cheap natural gas shale boom in the US. Eight new ethane-fed steam crackers are starting up in the same two-year span, and more such infrastructure is planned in 2020 and beyond.
Last year Dow started up a new 1.5 million mt/cracker and 400,000 mt/year linear-low density polyethylene plant in at its Freeport, Texas complex.
Ungerleider said the Louisiana PE plant came online during the first quarter and has ramped up to full rates.
