Lotte Chemical Relocating HQ to LA

By Evelina Croitoru

The groundbreaking ceremony of the MEG plant.

Lotte Chemical USA is relocating its headquarters from Houston to Lake Charles, La. The corporate office will join the company’s $1.1 billion monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant, which is currently underway at the nexus of Interstates 10 and 210. The Lake Charles site is expected to be the largest MEG plant in the U.S.

Lotte entered in a joint venture with Axiall Corp. to develop the facility that broke ground in June 2016.  Besides developing the MEG plant, Lotte is also investing in a $1.9 billion joint venture with Westlake Chemical to build an ethane cracker complex on the 250-acre site that will accommodate both the future corporate headquarters and the upcoming plant. Combined, all three developments will represent more than $3 billion in new capital investment, 265 new direct jobs and more than 2,300 indirect jobs in the Calcasieu Parish. The plant in Lake Charles will produce monoethylene glycol, an ingredient used in manufacturing paper, textile fibers, latex paints, asphalt, antifreeze and coolants. All facilities are expected to start operations in 2019.

The State of Louisiana offered the company a competitive incentive package, including a $12.5 million performance-based grant payable over three years. Additionally, Lotte will receive the comprehensive solutions of LED FastStart workforce training program, along with an Economic Development Award Program performance-based loan of $1.47 million for site infrastructure improvements.

“We selected Louisiana as the site for the state-of-the-art, steam-cracking facility and adjacent ethylene glycol plant due to the advantages of existing infrastructure, including access to competitive feedstock resources, as well as the distribution infrastructure and a skilled and well-trained workforce,” Lotte’s CEO Steve Chung, said in a prepared statement.

Image courtesy of inspectioneering.com