The 775 million pounds-per-year plant is scheduled to start up early next year.

Basell, a 50/50 joint venture of BASF and Royal Dutch/Shell, is the world's largest producer and marketer of polypropylene. The addition of the Bayway plant capacity will increase the polypropylene capacity Basell sells in North America to more than four billion pounds per year.

Polypropylene is a versatile polyolefin plastic that has a wide performance range in the diverse and ever-expanding plastics industry and has a range of applications, including the automotive industry, fibers for baby diapers, films, rigid packaging containers, outdoor furniture, carpets and sanitary medical products.