Seven months after Axiall and Lotte Chemical broke ground on a $3 billion ethane cracker and adjacent chemical plant in Westlake the project’s first shipment of major equipment arrived.
The American Press reports the cargo, shipped from South Korea on Dec. 29, arrived on Friday at the Port of Lake Charles, where it was loaded onto a barge that traveled up Bayou d’Inde to the project’s newly constructed barge slip.
“It is the first use of our new barge slip designed and constructed specifically to take advantage of our access to water for receiving large shipments such as this,” says project director Jim Rock. “We will be receiving many more shipments during the year.”
The barge contained two pieces of heavy equipment, and another is on its way, he adds. The three pieces weigh over 2.5 million pounds. The longest vessel is 240 feet long, and the widest is over 26 feet in diameter.
LACC, short for Lotte-Axiall Chemical Co., broke ground in June at the Westlake site near Axiall’s existing manufacturing facility. The project consists of a $1.9 billion ethylene plant and a $1.1 billion ethylene glycol plant. Lotte Chemical will own 100% of the ethylene glycol plant and 90% of the ethylene plant, with Axiall owning 10%.
Rock says the ethylene plant will produce about 2 billion pounds a year. Half of the ethylene will go to Axiall to produce chemicals used in PVC pipes, siding and decking. The other half will feed the ethylene glycol plant to make ethylene glycol—a liquid product in polyester fibers and antifreeze—for export.
