Lyondell Chemical outlined expansion plans in Europe, including the construction of two major chemical production facilities in The Netherlands.

Lyondell Chemical Co., Houston, outlined expansion plans in Europe, including the construction of two major chemical production facilities in The Netherlands, at a meeting of company executives with customers at Rotterdam. Lyondell is in the process of building a 1,4-butanediol (BDO) production facility at Botlek and a propylene oxide (PO) manufacturing facility at Maasvlakte, The Netherlands. The company said the projects are part of an overall strategic focus on expansion that will take it from a major producer of BDO and derivatives in North America to a key supplier of those products worldwide. BDO is an important intermediate for plastics and urethanes, and is the source of derivatives that include tetrahydrofuran (THF), n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) and MPDiol® glycol. Applications of those products include coatings, resins and a range of other materials. Lyondell said the new BDO plant in The Netherlands, scheduled to begin production in early 2002, will be the world’s largest BDO facility. Construction of the new PO facility is expected to begin early next year, with an anticipated start-up in early 2003. That plant will have an annual capacity of 625 million pounds of PO and 1.4 billion pounds of styrene.