Italy-based PET resin operator M&G Group has purchased land in the US port city of Corpus Christi, Texas, where it plans to build the “world’s largest PET integrated plant”.
Employing the same technology as M&G’s single reactor Suape (Brazil) PET plant, including the company’s EasyUp SSP technology, the new PET single line plant is expected to produce 1 million tons per year, and will be accompanied by a 1.2 million ton per year PTA plant.
Located 200 miles southwest of Houston, Corpus Christi is the sixth largest port in the US in terms of tonnage, and is due to expand significantly as a major trade gateway for Mexico and Latin America, with the development of the La Quinta Container Terminal.
The new M&G plants will generate approximately 250 new jobs, with an additional 700 indirect positions anticipated and as many as 3,000 jobs likely to be created during construction.
Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G’s polymers business unit, said: “The synergies of the location, adding to the unmatched size and integration efficiency of the plant, will further remove logistic costs, making our operation by far the world’s lowest cost.”
M&G International is one of the largest producers of PET resin for packaging applications in the Americas, with a production capacity in 2012 of approximately 1.6 million tons per annum.
