Originally scheduled for commissioning in Q1 2011 – see Plasteurope.com of 15.10.2010 – Sabic Innovative Plastics (Sabic IP, Bergen op Zoom / The Netherlands; www.sabic-ip.com) on 1 November 2011 officially inaugurated its new PP compound plant in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi / USA. The compounding plant, which turns out both PP compounds and “Stamax” long glass fibre-filled PP, was modeled after Sabic’s compounding facility in Genk / Belgium, which has a capacity of 140,000 t/y and was started up in June 2010 – see Plasteurope.com of 18.06.2010.

Output of the new facility is geared towards the North American automotive market. “With the investment in Bay St. Louis, we have taken the expertise that we have accumulated in Europe and the rest of the world and added it to North America,” Leon Jacobs, PP global leader Innovative Plastics, Automotive, said.