The joint venture (JV) partners of Corpus Christi Polymers (CCP) have decided to temporarily pause the construction of the integrated purified terephthalic acid-polyethylene terephthalate (PTA-PET) plant in Texas, US.

CCP was created by certain subsidiaries of Alpek, Indorama Ventures, and Far Eastern Investment in 2018, to jointly acquire and complete construction of the integrated PTA-PET plant.

This decision to work together was taken as inflation, high interest rates, and labour shortages have increased economic issues in the country.

The partners will now explore ways to prioritise or phase the completion of the plant while focusing on project cost optimisation.

In addition, they will continue to assess opportunities to improve capital expenditure throughout the process.

The companies will provide any additional funds required to preserve and maintain CCP’s assets as they prepare to resume construction.

Alpek CEO Jorge Young said: “Alpek remains committed to maximising value from CCP. We are confident that taking the time to evaluate the various options will allow us to improve CapEx and determine the best path moving forward considering our stakeholders and customers.”

Meanwhile, Indorama Ventures will leverage its network of local and overseas capabilities to meet growing demand from its customers.

The facility is expected to begin production in 2025.

It will be equipped with three advanced technologies and will feature nominal annual capacities of 1.1 million tonnes of PET and 1.3 million tonnes of PTA.

The plant is expected to be one of the largest vertically integrated PTA-PET production plants in the Americas and will expand Indorama Ventures' coverage to customers across the US.