Company News
September 3, 2020
American Excelsior Expansion
American Excelsior Company Announces $5 Million Expansion Plan
Arlington, TX – September 3, 2020 – American Excelsior Company recently announced a series of expansion plans, totaling $5 million, across the company.
These expansions support two core product lines; the Wood Fiber and Flexible Foam divisions.
After earlier investments of flexible foam equipment for plants in Arlington, Texas and Yakima, Washington, the company is now focused on a series of major expansion plans. These plans include building expansions at its Rice Lake, Wisconsin plant, as well as an extensive list of new production equipment to support both divisions. Additional manufacturing equipment at plants in Rice Lake, Wisconsin; Florence, Alabama; and Norwalk, Ohio will support the wood fiber and erosion industry. New automated foam fabricating equipment for locations in Norwalk, Ohio; West Chicago, Illinois; and Sheboygan, Wisconsin will support the Flexible Foam division.
Terry Sadowski, President of American Excelsior, said, “When we started the new year, we had an aggressive growth plan. When the pandemic hit, we knew there was going to be an impact on those plans. We thought they would certainly be delayed. Instead, we have accelerated our plan and are moving forward with increasing our manufacturing capacity and warehousing facilities. The terrible pandemic has caused some markets to grow while others falter, but we have had the good fortune of seeing stronger market demands for many of our products. This has caused us to increase our operational production resources.
While dealing with the pandemic is costly to businesses and to human life, it is good to know that many of our products, such as those in the medical industry, play an important role in the battle against COVID-19. It is also good to know our success means our growth will help employ others in the construction and equipment manufacturing industry and create from 25-30 new jobs and new opportunities for our current associates.”
This is the first phase of the company’s growth plan, and further details will be released later in the year. American Excelsior is committed and proud to support American-made products and continue its 132-year legacy.
If you would like more information, please contact Ken Starrett, Vice President of Sales, at kstarrett@americanexcelsior.com.
September 3, 2020
EO and MEG Force Majeures
Power outages after hurricane lead to FMs on one third of US MEG capacity
Author: Antoinette Smith
2020/09/01
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Following Hurricane Laura, more than one third of US monoethylene glycol (MEG) production capacity is included in force majeure declarations.
Three producers in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas – Lotte, Indorama and Sasol – declared force majeure as a result of the category 4 storm, which hit the area early morning on 27 August.
These three plants represent 35% of US MEG capacity, according to the ICIS Supply and Demand Database.
Power outages remain in the US as a result of Hurricane Laura, preventing some chemical companies from restarting their plants.
US MEG supply was already tight, ahead of a heavy slate of planned maintenance.
Click here to view the US Gulf storms – impacts on chemicals topic page.
MEG is an intermediate in the production of polyester fibres and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resins, and as an automotive antifreeze.
Major glycol producers in the US include Eastman Chemical, Indorama Ventures, Lotte Chemical, LyondellBasell, MEGlobal, Nan Ya Plastics, Sasol and Shell Chemical.
September 3, 2020
EO and MEG Force Majeures
Power outages after hurricane lead to FMs on one third of US MEG capacity
Author: Antoinette Smith
2020/09/01
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Following Hurricane Laura, more than one third of US monoethylene glycol (MEG) production capacity is included in force majeure declarations.
Three producers in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas – Lotte, Indorama and Sasol – declared force majeure as a result of the category 4 storm, which hit the area early morning on 27 August.
These three plants represent 35% of US MEG capacity, according to the ICIS Supply and Demand Database.
Power outages remain in the US as a result of Hurricane Laura, preventing some chemical companies from restarting their plants.
US MEG supply was already tight, ahead of a heavy slate of planned maintenance.
Click here to view the US Gulf storms – impacts on chemicals topic page.
MEG is an intermediate in the production of polyester fibres and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resins, and as an automotive antifreeze.
Major glycol producers in the US include Eastman Chemical, Indorama Ventures, Lotte Chemical, LyondellBasell, MEGlobal, Nan Ya Plastics, Sasol and Shell Chemical.
September 2, 2020
TDI Force Majeure
Power outages remain high, delay chem plant restarts
Author: Al Greenwood
2020/09/02
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Power outages have persisted on Wednesday in Louisiana and Texas, making it harder for petrochemical plants to resume operations.
Many plants remain shut down in part because of power outages, even though they escaped major damage from Hurricane Laura. The storm made landfall early on 27 August in Louisiana, close to the border with Texas.
The number of power outages reported by utilities remains high, as shown in the following table.
| 1-Sep | 2-Sep | |
| Louisiana | 260,770 | 227,430 |
| Texas | 39,008 | 41,330 |
Source: PowerOutage.US
Entergy is the main power distributor in the regions hit hardest by the storm. The company is focusing on restoring power to critical community infrastructure such as fire and police departments, hospitals, water utilities and communications services, it said, adding, “As we restore service to residential, commercial and industrial customers, we must do it in a way that balances the needs of our customers with the ability to support additional load as the system permits.”
Entergy gave no timeline as to when it could restore power to industrial plants.
A synthetic rubber producer said one plant may not get power until mid-September.
PLANT UPDATES
Covestro declared force majeure on toluene diisocyanate (TDI) supplies in North America as of 1 September, according to a company spokesperson.
The company said that the force majeure declaration was necessitated by the recent shutdown of the company’s facility in Baytown, Texas, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Laura, along with an unforeseen shortage of a key raw material used in production.
Baytown is near Houston, which saw few effects from the storm. Nevertheless, many companies in the region shut down operations as a precaution.
Plants farther away from the landfall site suffered little damage and are resuming operations.
Capacity for some products was clustered around the area hit by Hurricane Laura, which caused a large portion of US production for those products to be shut down.
September 2, 2020
TDI Force Majeure
Power outages remain high, delay chem plant restarts
Author: Al Greenwood
2020/09/02
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Power outages have persisted on Wednesday in Louisiana and Texas, making it harder for petrochemical plants to resume operations.
Many plants remain shut down in part because of power outages, even though they escaped major damage from Hurricane Laura. The storm made landfall early on 27 August in Louisiana, close to the border with Texas.
The number of power outages reported by utilities remains high, as shown in the following table.
| 1-Sep | 2-Sep | |
| Louisiana | 260,770 | 227,430 |
| Texas | 39,008 | 41,330 |
Source: PowerOutage.US
Entergy is the main power distributor in the regions hit hardest by the storm. The company is focusing on restoring power to critical community infrastructure such as fire and police departments, hospitals, water utilities and communications services, it said, adding, “As we restore service to residential, commercial and industrial customers, we must do it in a way that balances the needs of our customers with the ability to support additional load as the system permits.”
Entergy gave no timeline as to when it could restore power to industrial plants.
A synthetic rubber producer said one plant may not get power until mid-September.
PLANT UPDATES
Covestro declared force majeure on toluene diisocyanate (TDI) supplies in North America as of 1 September, according to a company spokesperson.
The company said that the force majeure declaration was necessitated by the recent shutdown of the company’s facility in Baytown, Texas, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Laura, along with an unforeseen shortage of a key raw material used in production.
Baytown is near Houston, which saw few effects from the storm. Nevertheless, many companies in the region shut down operations as a precaution.
Plants farther away from the landfall site suffered little damage and are resuming operations.
Capacity for some products was clustered around the area hit by Hurricane Laura, which caused a large portion of US production for those products to be shut down.
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