ExxonMobil has announced that the company's new 650,000-ton / year high-performance PE production line in Beaumont, Texas has begun production.
With the addition of new production lines, the total PE capacity of ExxonMobil's Beaumont plant has increased to 1.7 million tons per year.
ExxonMobil's new production line is the latest addition to the ongoing wave of large-scale PE capacity expansion in the United States. Since 2017, the United States has added more than 4 million tons of PE capacity per year.
Because the domestic demand for PE is not growing fast enough to absorb all the new capacity, most of the new capacity is intended to supply the export market.
Karen McKee, President of ExxonMobil Chemical, said: "In terms of expanding PE production to meet global demand growth, the new domestic supply of LNG provides us with a significant advantage."
The new Beaumont PE line is part of ExxonMobil's Exaggerated Gulf Project, which includes plans to build and expand manufacturing facilities along the US Gulf Coast, which has created more than 45,000 jobs in the region.
PE is the most widely used plastic in the world, mainly for the packaging of plastic bags, plastic films and geomembrane.