Westlake restarts production at idle site

Westlake Chemical Corp. plans to restart PVC and vinyl chloride monomer production in Geismar in 2005. Houston-based Westlake acquired the Geismar plant in late 2002 from now-defunct Borden Chemicals and Plastics LP. The plant had been idled for at least a year when the deal was made. Westlake restarted ethylene dichloride production there in November 2003.

The site has annual capacities of 600 million pounds each for PVC and VCM. Westlake officials said the new PVC capacity will be used to meet merchant demand as well as supply resin for the three PVC pipe plants it recently acquired from Bristolpipe Corp. Westlake also announced plans to increase EDC capacity in Geismar by 25 percent.

In the first half of 2004, PVC sales in the United States and Canada were up almost 9 percent vs. 2003, according to the American Plastics Council in Arlington, Va. The increase was fueled by big gains in the pipe, tubing and siding markets.