EVC International NV (HQ: Boulevard du Souverain 360, B-1160 Brussels), the largest producer of PVC in Europe, has announced its intention of establishing a 300,000 t/y Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) facility in Runcorn in the United Kingdom scheduled to come on stream in 1998. The project, which is subject to necessary planning and other official approvals, involves re-acquiring the 180,000 t/y VCM plant in Runcorn from ICI, expanding it to 300,000 t/y using EVC's latest oxychlorination technology and equipping it to meet EVC's latest environmental standards, at a total cost of some GBP 60m. On completion of the project, EVC will close its 190,000 t/y VCM plant in Hillhouse, UK.

In commenting on the decision, EVC's Director responsible for the PVC and VCM businesses, Peter Hollins said: "Our VCM plant in Hillhouse has an outstanding record in terms of reliability and safety. However, the need to make significant expenditure on environmental and infrastructure improvements in our VCM plant in Hillhouse has coincided with ICI's announcement on the Intergen power station in Runcorn with its benefits for the cost of producing chlorine. The performance of our PVC plant in Runcorn has also improved dramatically since the flotation of EVC. We therefore have the opportunity of developing one of the strongest chlorine, VCM and PVC complexes in Europe."