DuPontSA awaits plant approval from Sabanci

DuPontSA hopes shortly to receive board approval, from its new sole owner Sabanci, for a world-scale purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant.

Richard Stokes, DuPontSA’s vice president sales and marketing and general manager for the PTA resins and bottles business, said that there would be more opportunity for growth under the sole ownership of Sabanci.

‘The region [Greater Europe] will need a new PTA plant by 2007-08, and one feature of our strategy going forward is to fill that gap. This would have been difficult under DuPont but Sabanci has made a positive step in buying out DuPont and announcing its ambition to grow.

‘We have regular reviews with the board about growth areas and we have identified that our PTA technology gives us a strong position, coupled to the need for additional capacity in the marketplace following BP’s delay [in Geleen, the Netherlands]. Now DuPont has gone we can take this forward, and expect a decision within the next six months,’ said Stokes.

He also revealed that the investment would cost ‘hundreds of millions of euros’, and that Sabanci’s technology could produce up to 1m tonne/year. PTA continues to grow globally by 6-8%, driven by Asian fibre growth and by PET growth in Greater Europe and the Americas. In 2004 global PTA demand was 30m tonne/year, with Greater European demand of 3.2m tonne/year.

So far all of DuPontSA’s PTA production is in Wilton, Teesside, UK, and so the existing infrastructure would make it easier to build a new plant there. Stokes said that any grants under the Regional Selective Assistance scheme, similar to that awarded to Huntsman, would be a persuasive factor. However, its petchem complex in Adana, Turkey, is another possible location. DuPontSA currently ships PTA from Wilton to Adana and also has to buy in an additional 40 000 tonne/year in Turkey.

An expansion of the T8 PTA production plant in Wilton is under way. The capacity will be raised from 390 000 tonne/year to 500 000 tonne/year, taking the site total from 550 000 tonne/year to 660 000 tonne/year. However, the aging T7 unit, which has a capacity of 160 000 tonne/year, will be retired.

DuPontSA is also planning an expansion of its CP5 and SSP units in Adana. The units, which produce bottle grade PET and PET resin for sheeting applications, will be raised from 130 000 tonne/year to 140 000 tonne/year.

Additionally, DuPontSA is about to begin construction of a textile pilot plant in Adana at a cost of several million euros. The unit will have two pilot staple spinning lines, two spinning filament lines, a CP unit and a high-speed texturing machine. Phase 1 of the unit, which is being built in alliance with Uhde, will be completed in April and Phase 2 in October next year.