MOSCOW (MRC) -- Construction is nearly complete on a USD4.5 billion petrochemical complex in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz that will provide big benefits in terms of import substitution and be the largest of its kind in Latin America, said Theapricity.
Etileno XXI is projected to produce around 750,000 tons of high-density polyethylene and 350,000 tons of low-density polyethylene annually starting in December, output that will serve to replace "70 percent of Mexico's polyethylene imports," Eduardo Lima de Rozendo, the top executive of the Odebrecht-led joint venture company building the complex, told EFE in an interview.
Lima de Rozendo, the Mexican representative of Brazil-based Odebrecht Engenharia e Construcao Internacional S.A., said the complex would have the capacity to process 66,000 barrels per day of ethane, which will be purchased from Mexican state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos.
The complex near the port city of Coatzacoalcos will use that raw material to produce an annual total of nearly 1.1 million tons of polyethylene, used to make products such as plastic food containers, detergents, shampoos, bags, pipes, baby bottles, toys, diapers and even medical prosthetics.
Mexico was chosen as the site of the project because its Atlantic and Pacific coasts make it a "strategic location" and due to the trade treaties it has signed, the executive said.
A total of 26,000 workers have been involved in the construction stage, which kicked off in 2011. The complex currently occupies an area of nearly 900,000 sq. meters (220 acres), while an additional 300,000 sq. meters were used to store materials.
More than 330,000 cubic meters of concrete, four times the amount needed to build Mexico City's Aztec Stadium, have gone into its construction.
Enough steel to build four Eiffel towers was used, while materials and equipment from India, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Japan, the United States and Brazil entered the country via seven Mexican ports, Lima de Rozendo said.
Engineering, procurement and construction are the responsibility of the Etileno XXI joint venture company, which is led by Brazil-based Odebrecht Engenharia e Construcao Internacional S.A. and also includes ICA Fluor, the industrial engineering partnership between the Texas-based Fluor Corporation and Mexico's Empresas ICA; and Italy's Technip.
The complex will be operated by Braskem-Idesa, a joint venture between Braskem (the petrochemical arm of Brazil's Odebrecht Group and Latin America's largest producer of thermoplastic resins) and Grupo Idesa, a leading Mexican petrochemical company.
As MRC informed earlier, Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem has lifted the investment forecast for its flagship Etileno XXI complex in Mexico by 13% amid rising construction costs. The overall outlay for the project in the Coatzacoalcos region of Veracruz state has been revised to USD5.2bn
MRC