In a recent announcement made by Dow, it was mentioned that the company was looking forward towards improving reliability and access to raw materials through increasing its capacity for Methyl Acrylate production in the US Gulf Coast. 

For this the company will be constructing a Methyl Acrylate plant of nameplate capacity 50,000 tonnes at St. Charles in Louisiana in the US. The proposed plant is set to come online by the first half of 2022 and will be focused on supplying to the increasing demand for the chemical in North America. Once the plant is online, it will be focusing on the production of Methyl Acrylate and 2-Ethyl-Hexyl Acrylate. Ethyl Acrylate production will be supported by the Deer Park operations in Texas. 

Methyl Acrylate has various applications including water treatment, thermoplastic products, inks, resins, and packaging materials. With the application areas experiencing healthy demand growth, the demand for Methyl Acrylate is expected to grow in the near term. 

As per ChemAnalyst, “the major drivers for the demand growth of Methyl Acrylate in North America include water treatment, plastics and packaging materials. The demand for packaging materials is increasing in the United States with changing consumer preferences for convenient packaging and the investment by Dow is aimed at capturing this demand growth.”