AKRON, OHIO — Big plans for plastic projects in Appalachia are featured in this week's Material Insights video.

Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht on Nov. 14 unveiled plans to build an ethane cracker and three polyethylene plants near Parkersburg, W.Va. The complex will be run by Brazilian plastics firm Braskem, which is partially owned by Odebrecht. The project also will lead to the closing of an ABS resin plant operated by Sabic Innovative Plastics on land that will be sold to Odebrecht.

Details of Shell Chemical's plans to build a petrochemical site near Pittsburgh also are featured in this week's video. A company executive recently said in a media report that the project in Monaca, Pa., will include about two billion pounds of HDPE capacity and about one billion pounds of LLDPE capacity. A Shell spokeswoman in Houston declined to confirm those details, however, and said that no official decisions have been made.

The video wraps up with news that Braskem Idesa's plans to open a major petrochemical site in Mexico are on track. The joint venture will open the $4.5 billion Ethylene XXI project in Coatzacoalcos by mid-2015. The site will have more than two billion pounds of combined capacity for HDPE and LDPE.