Eastman Chemical says it has completed the restart of a previously idled ethane cracking unit at its Longview, TX complex ahead of schedule. The restart increases Eastman’s olefin capacity by about 500 million lbs/ year and brings the total number of active cracking units at Longview to three. “The restart was prompted by a favorable shift in market conditionsfor olefin feedstocks which is expected to continue over the next several years,” says Ron Lindsay, executive v.p./performance polymers and chemical intermediates at Eastman. “Restarting this cracking unit will give us an advantaged cost position over purchasing olefins in the North American market.” Eastman has four ethylene units at its Longview complex, with ethylene capacity totaling about 1.85 billion lbs/year, or about 1.5% of North American capacity. The largest cracker can produce nearly 1 billion lbs/year of olefins; two can produce about 500 million lbs/year of ethylene and propylene; there is also smaller, older cracker on site. The company announced in July the shuttered unit would come back onstream in the first-quarter of 2011. With North America expected to be long on natural gas, olefin producers have an incentive to use that source of raw material. The assurance of a long-term source of supply for feedstocks factored into the company’s decision to make major investmentssuch as those at the Longview site, Eastman says.
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