Japanese chemical group Kuraray (Tokyo; www.kuraray.co.jp) plans to build a new PVOH (polyvinyl alcohol) resin production facility at Kuraray America (Houston, Texas / USA; www.kuraray.com) to support its core business of vinyl acetate and PVOH-related products.

The US facility will be the group's fourth vinyl acetate plant. Kuraray currently produces 150,000 t/y of vinyl acetate and 124,000 t/y of PVA at its site in Okayama, Japan. Another plant in Singapore has a capacity of 40,000 t/y – see Plasteurope.com from 28.01.2011. Closing out the list is the company’s European PVA plant in Frankfurt, Germany, which has recently undergone a capacity expansion of 24,000 t/y on top of its 70,000 t/y capacity – see Plasteurope.com from 21.01.2011.

Aware that the location will have easy access to shale gas, Kuraray has already purchased land for the facility located in La Porte. Completion of the site is set for September 2014, and is projected to have a production capacity of 40,000 t/y in its initial phase. Another 20,000 t/y are set to follow in the second phase by 2016/17, with an overall investment cost of USD 253m.