US oil and petrochemicals giant ExxonMobil (Houston, Texas; www.exxonmobil.com) has announced the startup of its 450,000 t/y polypropylene production plant on the US Gulf Coast in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a year later than originally planned (see Plasteurope.com of 07.03.2019).

The US heavyweight has nearly tripled the potential production volume at the site. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), the existing plant there already has a PP capacity of 272,000 t/y. The additional volume is intended primarily for the automotive industry.

ExxonMobil maintained its capital investment of more than USD 500 mn in the project through the pandemic and began production according to planned cost and schedule, the company said. Sixty-five permanent jobs were created upon completion of the plant.

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However, what is good news for ExxonMobil is not very good news for the other producers in North America – that’s because the new capacity is likely to further fuel the downward trend in PP prices that has been in place since March 2022 and counteract efforts to curb overall output to stabilise prices.

PP availability is already more than ample and demand extremely weak, as Plasteurope.com reported in its North America market report for November (see Plasteurope.com of 07.12.2022). In addition, spot prices for the precursor propylene are also softening.