Eastman Chemical has announced it will undertake a series of projects at its site in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA, to raise capacity for cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM), a precursor for producing polyesters.

A program of debottlenecks and expansions will take place during the next 18 months, increasing output capability by 15,000 t/y overall. All projects are anticipated to be completed by early 2019. Eastman said the investments will enable it to meet increasing demand for copolyesters as well as other polyester products.

Burt Capel, vice president and general manager of Eastman’s Specialty Plastics business, commented: “Since its launch, we’ve seen tremendous growth in Tritan and continued strength across our copolyester product portfolio. This investment, along with the additional PETG capacity we recently announced that is coming online in 2018, further demonstrates our commitment to our entire copolyester business.”

Last month, the company said it planned to expand PETG capacity by approximately 20% at its copolyester site in Kuantan, Malaysia. The expansion is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2018.