Dive Brief:
- The Chemours Co. plans to begin operations at its expanded Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant next month after receiving its wastewater permit, President and CEO Denise Dignam said in an Aug. 2 earnings call.
- The expanded plant will produce Teflon PFA, a forever chemical resin used in semiconductor manufacturing to prevent contamination during wet etching and fabrication. The chemical company is the only U.S.-based manufacturer of the Teflon material.
- Chemours is expanding the plant to meet rising demand driven by the CHIPS and Science Act, Dignam said. The company has not disclosed the expansion’s value.
Dive Insight:
The company is pushing to keep up with increasing demand — Dignam noted on the call that Teflon PFA continues to sell out.
“Teflon PFA is an absolute requirement to avoid contamination in the chip manufacturing process,” the CEO said.
The company’s plans to expand the Washington Works plant, which is located along the Ohio-West Virginia border, have been underway for the past year. Former CEO Mark Newman discussed expansion plans on an earnings call October 2023, but noted that the chemical maker was facing permit delays.
In July 2023, city council officials in Belpre, Ohio, one of the plant’s surrounding towns, noted that Chemours had tentative plans to invest $1 billion to expand the Washington Works facility. The expanded plant would support Intel's upcoming semiconductor plant outside Columbus, Ohio, according to city council documents. A Chemours spokesperson declined to confirm if the project was the same as the company’s current expansion plan.
The Teflon PFA expansion is just one of several growth projects Chemours is considering, Gerardo Familiar, president of Chemours’ Advanced Performance Materials division, said in a statement.
“Constructing an additional manufacturing line at Washington Works to increase supply capacity will help enable more U.S. manufacturing of semiconductors in line with the CHIPS and Science Act,” Familiar said. “Yet, while Chemours is interested in continued growth and investment, we need more certainty around policy and regulation before we can justify further investment in our U.S. manufacturing footprint.”
Permits related to the Washington Works expansion are ongoing. Chemours’ proposed Clean Air Act permit is in the midst of its public comment period until Sept. 3, according to West Virginia's environmental protection agency website.
The company’s expansion plans come amid increasing oversight of PFAS, as more states and the Environmental Protection Agency consider and enact new forever chemical regulations.
The Washington Works plant has been producing PFAS for decades. The factory opened in 1948 and began producing Teflon and plastics in 1951. DuPont de Nemours owned the plant until Chemours took over the Washington Works site and Teflon production in 2015.
The site is also the cause of major litigation. In November 2023, Chemours, DuPont and Corteva reached a $110 million settlement with the state of Ohio over chemical contamination from the factory. The state claimed PFAS emissions from the factory harmed nearby Ohio residents’ health and contaminated the environment for more than 70 years.
