Japan’s Shin-Etsu group, the world’s largest PVC maker

Japan’s Shin-Etsu group, the world’s largest PVC maker, is to invest $1bn (E750m) in a huge project for PVC and its feedstocks in the US.

The project will be located on the Gulf Coast at one of two sites where the firm’s US subsidiary Shintech is already present. Overall, an additional 600,000tpa of PVC capacity will be added to Shintech’s existing 2 million tpa capability for the polymer.

Upstream of the PVC capacity, the project calls for 500,000tpa of caustic soda and over 700,000 tpa of VCM. The first phase is scheduled for completion by the end of 2006 with the balance planned for the following year.

Up to now, Shintech has focused purely on PVC manufacture. Now it is not only moving into full integration, but considering building an ethylene cracker in the US. In Europe, the company is active through the PVC business it acquired from Shell.