Austrian Borealis said Monday it would conduct a feasibility study into the prospect of sharply increasing capacity at its polypropylene plants in Europe.
The study will initially target the three PP plants Borealis operates in Belgium, the company said in a statement. It operates one PP plant in Kallo with 300,000 mt/year capacity, and two PP plants in Beringen with a combined capacity of 380,000 mt/year.
The feasibility study will be carried out over the next nine months and will assess a series of capacity increases through the de-bottlenecking of existing assets, Borealis said.
Final investment decisions are expected to be taken in Q4 2018, with capacity increases coming on stream from Q1 2020 to early 2022, the company said.
"In Europe, polypropylene supply is not keeping up with increasing demand. With the market tightening and the continuous application expansion for PP materials, additional investment is needed to ensure a reliable platform for continuous, long-term growth in polypropylene," Maria Ciliberti, vice president for marketing and new business development, said in the statement.
