Nan Ya's Texas MEG plant startup pushed back to late 2020 or early 2021: source

Houston — Nan Ya's 800,000 mt/year monoethylene glycol plant in Texas is expected to come online by late 2020 or early 2021 rather than the third quarter of 2020, according to a source familiar with company operations.

The company did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

According to Formosa Plastics USA, Nan Ya suspended construction on the project at Formosa's Point Comfort, Texas, complex in March on coronavirus pandemic-related concerns to ensure worker safety and social distancing. The company has not publicly disclosed a new startup timeline.

The facility's startup was originally expected to come in the first half of this year, and later pushed back to Q3.

The latest delay on pandemic concerns came as US supply was seen ample after 1.7 million mt/year of additional MEG capacity came online in 2019.

MEG is used to manufacture downstream polyethylene terephthalate, a resin that makes plastic bottles, as well as polyester fibers and antifreeze.