Chemicals and energy firm Sasol announced Monday that its new low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit in Lake Charles, LA reached beneficial operation on November 15. With the addition of the LDPE asset, the company’s $12.8 billion Lake Charles Chemicals Complex (LCCP) project is 100% complete.

“This milestone safely brings our Lake Charles Chemicals Project to a close and sets the stage for the next step in the evolution of our chemicals business,” the firm’s president and chief executive officer, Fleetwood Grobler, said in a release. “The completion of this unit and its impending transition to our joint venture with LyondellBasell will accelerate our transformation to a more specialty chemicals-focused company with a strong presence of base chemicals in our portfolio.”

Using ExxonMobil-supplied technology, the new LDPE unit has a nameplate capacity of 420,000 tn/yr, or 320 kt/yr. The material is used in the production of plastic bags, shrink wrap and stretch film, coatings for paper cups and cartons, and other applications.

Sasol said the Lake Charles site is one of three LDPE sites that will be a part of the Sasol/LyondellBasell Louisiana Integrated Polyethylene joint venture.