Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is expanding its operations in the Middle East to meet the fast growing demand for petrochemicals, especially in intermediates and polyolefins.
A press statement published today noted that SABIC's vice president for intermediates, Khaled Al-Mana, made this disclosure at SABIC's media conference held yesterday in conjunction with the Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) 2005 in Yokohama, Japan. "We are currently the second largest producer of ethylene glycol in the world and SABIC will become the number one producer in 2006. By 2006, SABIC will have a total ethylene glycol production capacity of 3.9 million metric tons per year and meet over 22 percent of global demand, out of which 3 million will be marketed by SABIC," he said.
Production expansion exceeds $8 billion and SABIC aims to increase overall annual production from 43 million metric tons in 2004 to more than 60 million metric tons by 2008.
In addition to UNITED-2, SABIC is currently constructing two new plants which will increase the total production capacity of ethylene glycol (EG) by more than 2 million metric tons a year.
Eastern Petrochemical Company (SHARQ), a 50:50 SABIC joint venture established in 1981 with a consortium of Japanese companies led by Mitsubishi Corporation, will add 2.9 million metric tons per year of ethylene, ethylene glycol and polyethylene by 2008 at its site in Al-Jubail. Construction works have also begun at the YANSAB Complex in Yanbu Industrial City (YANSAB) located in Saudi Arabia, to further increase SABIC’s production capacity. The production capacity of YANSAB is 1.3 million metric tons per year of ethylene and 400,000 metric tons per year of propylene.
Al-Mana said: “Asia is our fastest growing and most important market for SABIC as it accounts for over 40 percent of our exports. SABIC is embarking on an expansion plan for Asia including increasing our network facilities and services to better serve our valued customers. We also look forward to continuing our successful and strategic alliances with our Japanese partners.”
SABIC established its Japan office in Tokyo in 1990 to better serve its Japanese customers and leverage its long established strategic partnership with the Japanese petrochemical industry.
Another SABIC joint venture with a Japanese consortium led by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Saudi Methanol Company (AR-RAZI), which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, is also expanding its production capacity.
AR-RAZI was the first Saudi petrochemical plant to go on stream in 1983
