Published on June 9, 2017

The gulf coast continues to dominate US chemical construction. Six of the eight new U.S. ethylene projects now being built sit along the Gulf.

Companies like Houston’s Occidental Petroleum, Michigan’s Dow Chemical and Japanese subsidiary Shintech are all building or have recently built there.

And companies are looking to build more along the coast. In total, 200 petrochemical projects are planned or under study in the U.S., representing over $150 billion in capital investment over the next five years.

Much of the new production will be for export. The U.S. holds a $30 billion annual trade surplus on petrochemicals and that figure is expected to increase by as much as half over the next five years.