In a move that will allow the company to produce ethylene at its Iberville Parish plants and create an estimated 100 new direct jobs, Shintech announced plans today to invest $1.4 billion at its facilities in the parish.
Shintech, a North American subsidiary of Japan-based Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd.—the world’s largest PVC producer and a leading manufacturer of silicone and specialty chemicals—will also retain 335 existing direct jobs at its plants in Plaquemine and Addis with the investment, Louisiana Economic Development estimates.
Shintech expects to break ground on the project in the second quarter of this year, with completion of the project slated for the first half of 2018. LED says it began discussing the project with the company in December 2013. To secure it, the state is providing the company with an incentive package that includes a $5 million performance-based grant to offset the cost of infrastructure improvements at the Plaquemine site, along with a $5 million Modernization Tax Credit, to be claimed in equal installments over a five-year period. The company also will receive workforce training assistance through the LED FastStart program.
Shintech also is expected to utilize the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs. The quality jobs program provides a cash rebate of up to 6% of a company’s payroll for up to a decade, while the industrial exemption program offers a full abatement of local property taxes on new capital investments for up to 10 years as well.
With roughly 5,700 acres on the Mississippi River southwest of Baton Rouge, Shintech’s Plaquemine and Addis plants chiefly produce PVC and vinyl chloride monomer, or VCM, the key ingredient from which PVC plastics are made.
LED has more details on today’s announcement.
