capacity expansions

By Staff -- Purchasing, 7/13/2000

Ashland Specialty Chemical Co., Dublin, Ohio, recently completed an expansion of its unsaturated polyester resin plant, located in Philadelphia, Pa. The expansion, which will boost production capacity to 120 million lb/yr of polyester and vinyl ester resins, also includes two new processing vessels, and computer and safety systems upgrades.

Vulcan Materials Co. of Birmingham, Ala., will build a new world-scale pentachloropropane plant at Geismar, La. The investment, estimated at $50 million, is scheduled for completion during the summer of 2002.

Chevron Chemical Corp. has added a new automatic truck loading rack at its Cedar Bayou, Texas, petrochemcials complex. The new loading rack is part of a 750-million lb/yr normal alpha olefins expansion.

Arch Chemicals Inc., Norwalk, Conn., has completed an expansion of its hydrazine hydrate commercial facility in Lake Charles, La., resulting in a 12% capacity increase.

Bayer Group is investing more than US$17 million in a new production plant to manufacture aqueous polyurethane dispersions at its new Martinsville, W.V., plant. The new plant is scheduled to come on stream in fourth quarter 2000.