Equistar: A New Star in the Chemical Firmament

It's now official: the joint venture between Lyondell Petrochemical Co. and Millennium Chemicals, Inc. was officially launched on Dec. 1. At separate stockholder meetings on Nov. 20, the two partners approved the formation of the new company, to be called Equistar Chemicals, LP. Lyondell is 57 percent owner, and Millennium has the remaining 43 percent.

Equistar combines the olefins and polymers businesses of the two companies. It starts with 13 manufacturing facilities in the United States. The company begins life as a major petrochemical manufacturer—it is the largest producer of ethylene and polyethylene resins in North America, and a leading supplier of polypropylene. Total ethylene capacity: 7.63 billion lb/yr. Combined low-density, linear low-density and high-density PE: 6.26 billion lb/yr. PP: 680 million lb/yr. Plants are in Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, California and New Jersey. R&D facilities are at Cincinnati, Ohio, and Morris, Ill.

The company says that it offers polymer and copolymer grades for virtually every thermoplastics manufacturing process. Specialties include color and additive concentrates, wire and cable compounds, tie-layer and adhesive resins, and polyolefin powders for rotational molding and other processes. Other commodities include ethyl alcohol and general-purpose alcohol solvents, diethyl ether, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, dicyclopentadiene, isoprene, resin oil, piperylenes, alkylate and MTBE.

"Our extensive manufacturing capabilities allow us to optimize production scheduling and thus ensure reliable and uninterrupted delivery of products to our customers," says Dan Smith, CEO. The executive management team includes Eugene Allspach, president and COO; Debra Starnes, SVP, polymers; John Beard, VP, manufacturing; J.R. Fontenot, VP, engineering; and Kerry Williams, VP, R&D.

Equistar: One Houston Center, 1221 McKinney, Ste. 1600, Houston, TX 77252; Tel: 713-652-7300.