Eastman eyes two-year phase-out plan for Texas crackers

摘要

Houston-Eastman is considering closing two of its smaller crackers at Longview,Texas,by the end of 2008,a source famil-iar with the company's assets said October 18.Eastman has made no official comments as to which of its ethylene plants it will rationalize after the sale of its polyethyl-ene assets to Westlake is concluded,but market watchers and equity analysts have speculated since the news broke October 10 that Eastman would eventually shut three of its four crack-ers.Eastman's total ethylene capacity is listed at 1.7 billion pounds/year.