Axiall Corp. (Atlanta, Ga.; www.axiall.com) and Lotte Chemical (Seoul, South Korea; www.lottechem.com) have announced that they have signed an agreement to pursue a 50/50 joint venture (JV) arrangement for the design, construction and operation of a proposed 1 million metric ton/year (m.t./yr) ethane cracker. Consistent with Axiall’s initial announcement December 19, the potential cracker would be located in Louisiana.
The parties expect to jointly award a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for the cracker in the first quarter of 2014. In addition, Lotte Chemical would begin a FEED study for a wholly owned monoethylene glycol plant to be located adjacent to the potential cracker. Both plants could begin commercial operation in 2018 if the projects are approved by each company’s board of directors.