Asia’s Indorama chooses US site for giant PET plant

Thailand-based polyester major Indorama has selected Decatur, in Alabama, as the site for its new PET polymer plant in the US. At 425,000tpa, the unit will be the largest in the country and will employ the latest technology from Uhde Inventa Fischer, which eliminates the solid stating step.

When completed at the end of next year, the Decatur plant will take Indorama’s overall capacity in PET to 1.1m tonnes a year; together with the company’s StarPet operation in South Carolina, the Asian group will then have a total North American capacity of over 650,000 tonnes a year.

The new unit will draw feedstock from BP’s adjacent integrated paraxylene/PTA facility on the Tennessee River, taking advantage of the supplier’s technology.

“The project is very timely as we see a looming PET shortage in 2009 as each region in the world heads towards self sufficiency,” says Aloka Lohia, ceo of Indorama Polymers. North America is currently a net importer of PET for bottle making, the company notes.

The Decatur facility will turn out different grades of PET simultaneously enabling it to supply CSD customers as well as those making custom containers.

Indorama’s announcement follows news of a major 650,000tpa PET investment planned by Italy’s M & G group.