HOUSTON -- Yuhuang Chemical Inc. has started work on its $1.85 billion methanol manufacturing complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana. The project is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019, when the facility will begin distributing methanol by truck, rail, barge and ocean vessels.
Management expects a large portion to be distributed locally, with the balance exported primarily to Europe and China. The company closed in March on $800 million in financing with a group of Chinese banks for construction of its first methanol project in the parish. The facility is the first construction project financing in favor of a U.S.-based project provided by a syndicate composed entirely of Chinese banks and is the first private-company construction project financing led by the Bank of China in the U.S.
Yuhuang Chemical has purchased 1,300 acres for the plant, along with St. James High School, for $10.1 million. The 46-acre campus, located along River Road on the west bank of the Mississippi River, is directly in front of the tract where the plant is being built. The site is situated in an area known for its worldclass industrial infrastructure and easy access to natural gas, the Mississippi River, the Union Pacific Railroad System and Highway 3127, connecting the plant to major interstate channels and fostering the efficient production and distribution of methanol.
The first phase of the project is a $1.5 billion methanol manufacturing complex. Two more phases are set to follow, leading to the employment of 100 permanent workers and around 1,000 new construction jobs across the area. The project is a methane-to-methanol plant designed to produce 1.8 million metric tons per year of commercial-grade methanol. Under the leadership of President Charlie Yao, Yuhuang Chemical has achieved a critical milestone on the journey to safely building the world-scale methanol plant on time and on budget.
For more information, visit http://yci-us.com.
