Indorama Ventures (Bangkok / Thailand; www.indoramaventures.com) has announced plans to build a 540,000 t/y PET plant in the USA, to take advantage of expected growth in North America. The Thai producer also said, in a brief statement, that it would debottleneck its PET plant in Wloclawek / Poland instead of building a new line as previously planned.

The US project is scheduled for completion in Q4 2015 and will raise the company’s PET capacity in North America to 2.1m t/y. The project’s location was not disclosed. Indorama currently produces PET at three sites in the US: Asheboro in North Carolina, and Spartanburg in South Carolina and Decatur, Alabama.

Indorama also said that it will carry out a “significant debottlenecking” of its Wloclawek PET plant. A debottlenecking will be more cost effective than building a new line, it said, without providing further details. Under the original plan, capacity would have been raised by 220,000 t/y to 360,000 t/y in 2013 – see Plasteurope.com of 09.01.2012.