February 18, 2021: Today, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), the Thailand based company looking to develop a petrochemical ethane cracker in Ohio for plastics production, announced that it will be indefinitely delaying the project. This marks the latest delay in a years-long series of reevaluations, extensions, and missed deadlines. PTTGC chief executive Kongkrapan Intarajang announced the delay, citing that they need more time to adjust the project cost and “form new business partnerships.”
Originally announced in 2015, PTTGC has missed seven of their own final investment decisions, a huge signal of the petrochemical industry’s looming demise. The industry has been suffering economic decline and market disruption from COVID-19, but its problems extend beyond the current pandemic. When the project was proposed, the global price of plastics was in the range of $1 per pound. Now, plastics sell for 40 to 60 cents per pound. If constructed, the complex would ‘crack’ feedstock from fracked gas into ethylene, a component of single-use plastic manufacturing. The process would release hundreds of tons of hazardous airborne pollutants into local communities, potentially causing or exacerbating an array of short- and long-term health problems among nearby residents.
In January 2019, Sierra Club and partner organizations filed an appeal challenging the air permit for the proposed petrochemical facility. That challenge resulted in the facility agreeing to stricter pollution controls. The ongoing delays by the company show the success of the campaign by Sierra Club and other organizations to make clear how polluting this project is and to expose PTTGC’s false promises of economic revitalization.