UP, Katoen Natie break ground on Texas plastics facility

Union Pacific Railroad and logistics service provider Katoen Natie this week broke ground on a new plastic packaging facility in south Dallas County, Texas.

The plant will be located at the 3,000-acre Prime Pointe Industrial Park, which is adjacent to UP's Dallas Intermodal Terminal.

When it opens, the Katoen Natie facility will offer at least 250,000 square feet of warehouse space, with room to expand as warranted by market conditions, UP officials said in a press release.

Scheduled for completion in third-quarter 2018, the plant will have direct rail access via UP. Producers will be able to ship bulk rail cars of plastic resin pellets to the warehouse, where they'll be packaged and loaded into intermodal containers.

After traveling to UP's nearby intermodal terminal, the containers will move to ocean ports via the railroad's "Dallas to Dock" service.

"We are committed to providing service solutions to the petrochemical industry," said Kenny Rocker, UP vice president and general manager-industrial. "Katoen Natie's Dallas location aligns with container availability, a core need of our customer base."

From Dallas, UP's intermodal service delivers containers to the West Coast, where producers are able to export them to global destinations, Rocker said.