AlphaPet Inc., a new subsidiary of Indorama Polymers, Thailand (IRP), on August 24 announces that it has selected Decatur, Ala., as the site of its new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant. The plant will have a capacity of 432,000 tons of PET per year, making it North America's largest PET plant when completed. The unit will be located adjacent to and will receive its PTA from BP's integrated Decatur paraxylene/PTA facility on the Tennessee River.
"This project is attractive to us for a number of reasons," said Aloke Lohia, chief executive officer of Indorama Polymers PCL. "The state of Alabama and Morgan County offer great location and infrastructure, both of which help us meet our North American customers' needs. This location helped us lower the total capitalization of AlphaPet to an important internal benchmark allowing us to move forward with confidence in our competitiveness and sustainability. AlphaPet is very timely, as we see a looming PET shortage in 2009, as each region in the world heads toward self-sufficiency. Moreover, given BP's formidable technological and integrated position, we are delighted to have them as our supplier as we expect PTA utilizations to tighten in the future."
"Indorama believes in being at the forefront of the PET industry," said DK Agarwal, chief operating officer of IRP. "We today operate Europe's largest PET plant and will soon do the same in North America. In addition, we will eliminate the SSP process altogether by installing the latest state-of-the-art technology commercialized by Uhde Inventa Fischer. Indorama believes in delivering value to its stakeholders and the only way to do so is by efficient cost management which is reflected in the entire package that AlphaPet enjoys – a result of the experience of Indorama and its partners – and something that took a year to put together."
The Decatur plant will have the flexibility to produce different grades of resin simultaneously, allowing the company to serve CSD (carbonated soft drink), water and custom containers customers. The project is currently in the engineering and pre-construction phase and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2008. After the project is complete, Indorama Polymers' global bottle grade capacity will be around 1,100,000 tons per year (2.4 billion pounds). Through its subsidiaries StarPet Inc. of North Carolina and AlphaPet Inc. of Alabama, IRP's PET capacity in North America will increase to more than 650,000 tons (1.43 billion pounds) per year.
Indorama currently serves the U.S. West Coast today from its Asian facilities. North America is a net importer of bottle-grade PET resin. Indorama owns and operates plants in Asia, Europe and North America, whose combined use of PET accounts for 90 percent of world demand.
About the Author
