Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) announced that it will initiate the reconfiguration of its global acetic acid production network through multiple value-creation steps.
Celanese recently announced the planned acquisition of the carbon monoxide production unit from Linde PLC, located at the company’s Clear Lake, Texas site. This acquisition increases our available raw material supply and further enhances the company’s integration position and supports unparalleled operational flexibility.
In addition, the company is now announcing that its Clear Lake acetic acid facility will be expanded from 1.3 million tons per year to approximately 2.0 million tons per year by late 2021. This project delivers unique network rate flexibility, improved cost structure of the global acetic acid product portfolio and a platform easily expandable by an additional 600,000 tons per year.
The expansion will facilitate productivity options within its global acetic acid network in both Singapore and Nanjing, China leading to approximately 600,000 tons per year of production rationalization and limited net change in total system tonnage.
These projects will generate approximately $100 million of productivity and efficiency benefits across the platform as completed.
“By reconfiguring our global production capabilities through these capital-efficient, value-creation steps, Celanese will have a more optimized production network supporting our customer base,” said Todd Elliott, Celanese Senior Vice President, Acetyls. “Furthermore, this strengthening of our position in Clear Lake supports the recently completed VAM expansion.”