DuPont’s $100M expansion in Orange County

ORANGE COUNTY – DuPont’s existing Sabine River Works can’t keep up with worldwide demand for its materials. In response, the company intends to spend $100 million to expand it.

DuPont is experiencing revived demand for ethylene copolymers, a plastic material used in food packaging.

The Sabine River Works also produces materials for the automotive, industrial and consumer industries.

DuPont plans to complete the project over the next three to four years and expects to invest the first third of the $100 million by late 2015.

The investment will help boost Orange County’s economy, said Bobby Fillyaw, executive director of the Orange County Economic Development Corp., and add construction jobs as well as permanent jobs to Sabine River Works’ roster of about 900 full-time employees.

The expansion will protect existing jobs and could add to its local workforce whether DuPont hires locally for the construction or not, Orange County Judge Carl Thibodeaux said.

Thibodeaux said a project of this size would result in what he likes to call "collateral gain," which he described as an increase in sales taxes for local goods and services bought as a result of DuPont’s investment.

Fillyaw said that DuPont’s willingness to invest in the plant shows that the company has long-term plans for the plant that will ensure the stability of the local industry and those who depend on it.