Methanex says it has begun producing methanol at the second plant it has relocated to Geismar from Chile. Production began on Sunday, roughly three months ahead of schedule, the Vancouver-based company says in a news release issued this morning.
“We expect the plant to ramp up to full production rates over the coming weeks,” says Methanex President and CEO John Floren in the news release. “With the start-up of Geismar 2, we have successfully grown our operating capacity by approximately three million tonnes over the last three years.”
The combined cost to relocate both methanol plants to Geismar—the first of which began producing methanol in January, roughly 2½ years after the company announced the relocation—is approximately $1.4 billion, Flores adds.
Methanex is the world’s largest supplier of methanol. In March 2014, Floren said at the Methanol Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., that the company is considering relocating a third plant to Geismar. Since then, however, there has been no further public comment about that possibility, and today’s news release does not address it.
