M&G picks Corpus Christi as site for new PET plant
M&G Group, the largest Americas producer of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for packaging applications, has selected Corpus Christi, Texas, as the location for its previously announced 1 million tpy PET plant and accompanying 1.2 million tpy terephthalic acid (PTA) plant.
The new plants will generate approximately 250 new jobs. An additional 700 indirect positions are anticipated and as many as 3,000 jobs likely will be created during construction.
The new PET single line plant will employ the same technology as M&G's single reactor Suape (Brazil) PET plant, including M&G's revolutionary EasyUp SSP technology.
Corpus Christi, Texas, is located 200 miles southwest of Houston , and 145 miles east of Laredo, Texas.
It is strategically located on the Gulf of Mexico with a metropolitan population over 400,000.
The Port of Corpus Christi is the sixth largest port in the US, in terms of tonnage, and will soon expand significantly as a major trade gateway for Mexico and Latin America with development of the La Quinta Container Terminal, officials said.
"Corpus Christi is an excellent strategic home for what will be M&G's largest-ever investment. It has exceptional highway, deep-water and rail access, including three Class 1 railroads," said Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G's polymers unit.
"It was not only [government programs] in attracting M&G to Texas that weighed heavily in making the location decision, but also the service and supply efficiencies resulting from the presence of six refineries and paraxylene production in the area, as well as the excellent port infrastructure that allows the benefit of having marine access to most of the PTA/PET facility's key raw materials - paraxylene, acetic acid and ethylene glycol," said Ghisolfi.
Forbes has ranked Corpus Christi in the top 25% of the large metropolitan areas for low costs of doing business.
The area is populated by a highly skilled workforce in petrochemical, heavy fabrication, water transport and aerospace, the company said.
The Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corp. said it anticipates direct and indirect payroll resulting from the new plants to reach $780 million over 10 years and expects total economic impact of the new plants on Corpus Christi to be $4.8 billion during that same time.
Construction time for both the PET and PTA plants is estimated to be 30 months.
The engineering, project management, sourcing and construction management will be performed by Chemtex Global S.A., a subsidiary company of the M&G Group.
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