For Port Houston, Growing Resin Export Business
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Pictured: Packwell groundbreaking site, Port Houston, Bayport Industrial Complex. (Caption and Photograph Courtesy of Business Wire)
Packwell has broken ground on a new 725,000 square-foot resin packaging facility at Port Houston’s Bayport Industrial Complex in Texas, which is expected to anchor 20,000 export containers annually when it begins operations in early 2024.
The new facility will support such resin exporters as Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar) and Novealis Holdings LLC, which have expanded their polyethylene resin production plant in the area, Port Houston reported March 30. Combined, the moves will expand resin exports at the Port, which in 2022 handled 59% of all U.S. business.
The Packwell facility, located on property leased from Port Houston, will feature high-speed packaging lines, 450 truck spots, more than 700 railcar packaging capacities monthly, trailer storage, and numerous dock doors for loading into 40-foot export containers. It will add to Packwell’s 1.5 million-square-foot facility network across the Houston region. Packwell, an ISO 9001:2015 certified plastics bagging and logistics company, bags polymers of all categories, including polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other specialty chemicals.
“Packwell is committed to working with Port Houston to grow the export of plastic resin,” Packwell President Al Duran said.
“Port Houston is the nation’s number one port for resin exports, handling 59% of all resins exported from the United States in 2022, and we are excited to welcome this new facility near our Bayport Container Terminal,” Port Houston Executive Director Roger Guenther said. “As we invest in developing our marine terminals to support the continuous growth of resin exports, value-added services near our facilities that support the resin supply chain are also important investments. We look forward to serving our region in this capacity.”
Port Houston is a 25-mile-long complex of nearly 200 private and public industrial terminals along the 52-mile-long Houston Ship Channel. The eight public terminals are owned, operated, managed or leased by the Port of Houston Authority and include the general cargo terminals at the Turning Basin, Care, Jacintoport, Woodhouse, and the Barbours Cut and Bayport container terminals.
