China’s methanol makeover

Global Business

Yuhuang Chemical’s planned methanol plant in Louisiana is valued at 1.85 billion dollars and is one of the biggest of its kind ever to be built by China in the United States.

Plans are for the majority of the fuel produced there to be exported back to serve a rapidly growing Chinese market. Methanol is relatively cheap to produce and one of the greenest fuels around. So why isn’t the U.S. getting in on the act? CCTV’s business correspondent Owen Fairclough filed this report.

China\'s methanol makeover

Yuhuang Chemical’s planned methanol plant in Louisiana- valued at 1.85 billion dollars — is one of the biggest of its kind ever to be built by China in the United States. Plans are for the majority of the fuel produced there to be exported back to serve a rapidly growing Chinese market. Methanol is relatively cheap to produce and one of the greenest fuels around. So why isn’t the U.S. getting in on the act?CCTV’s business correspondent Owen Fairclough filed this report.

More details:

  • Methanol’s demise was partly due to higher production costs, while corn-based ethanol benefited from government subsidies for farmers who devoted vast tracts of land to it. But methanol industry leaders say times are changing.
  • There are more than a million vehicles running on it in China. And Chinese chemical companies are setting up methanol production plants along the U.S. Gulf Coast, where they can make it with cheap shale gas and export the fuel back home.