Dow, Mitsui postpone US$1.5 billion PE plant

US chemical giant Dow Chemical and Japanese company Mitsui have decided to postpone construction of a US$1.5 billion sugarcane-to-plastics facility in southeastern Brazil, opting to focus on more profitable projects elsewhere, according to a report published in Valor Econômico. Dow is reportedly looking at using shale gas reserves in the U.S. as cheap feedstock instead. The green plastics plant, when completed, would be the world’s largest biopolymers facility and Dow’s largest investment in Brazil.
 
Braskem, a Brazilian chemical company, began production of polyethylene (PE) from ethanol in 2010 at a plant in southern Brazil with a 200,000 ton-per-year capacity. However, Braskem has also delayed construction of a second ethanol-to-PE plant and its planned first green polypropylene plant. (January 9, 2013)