Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE: EMN) recently announced an expansion of carboxylic acids capacity at its Longview, Texas, and Kingsport, Tennessee, facilities. The additional capacity is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014 and will add approximately 50 million pounds of carboxylic acids to support the increasing internal and external demand of the product.
“Eastman is committed to the continued optimization of its plants that produce these acids,” says Tony Ponder, business manager for Eastman’s Oxo Chemicals business unit of the Specialty Fluids & Intermediates (SFI) business segment. “Our olefin crackers in Texas allow Eastman a competitive position in carboxylic acid production with the supply chain capabilities to ship globally.”
“Internal demand for our acids ensures our commitment to long-term efficient production for both internal and external customers,” says Chip Millican, business manager for Eastman’s Organic Intermediates business unit, also a part of the Specialty Fluids & Intermediates business segment. “These are important intermediate materials and we continue to invest in them. Additionally, our engineers have identified at least 20 million pounds of additional low cost capacity that could be implemented in the future as demand dictates.”
Manufacturing the products for more than 70 years, Eastman is a world leader in the production of carboxylic acids for multiple markets, including food and feed, pharmaceutical chemical intermediates, and agriculture. Eastman offers a wide variety of grades of acetic, propionic, butyric, isobutyric, benzoic, and 2-EH acids appropriate for these and other end uses.
