Shin-Etsu Chemical to Build Vinyl Chloride Monomer Plant in Texas

Tokyo, May 30 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. said Wednesday it will build a new plant in Chocolate Bayou, Texas, to make vinyl chloride monomer, a raw material for vinyl chloride resin.

The company will also make chlorine at the new plant, whose construction is expected to be completed around 2010.

Investment will total some 100 billion yen.

In the United States, demand for vinyl chloride resin, which is used in construction materials, is on the rise.

The new plant is intended to provide steady raw material supply to a vinyl chloride resin plant in Freeport in the same state, owned by Shintech Inc., a Houston-based subsidiary of Shin-Etsu.

Shintech currently gets raw material supply from U.S. chemical giant Dow Chemical Co.

The new plant will be capable of annually producing 825,000 tons of vinyl chloride monomer, 500,000 tons of chlorine and 550,000 tons of sodium hydroxide.END

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