Chandra Asri could finalise investment plan for de-bottlenecking and downstream petrochemical project

03-May-12

Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP), Indonesia's largest petrochemical firm in which Siam Cement Group (SCG) holds a 30% stake, is expected to finalise in H2-2012, an investment plan for both de-bottlenecking and a downstream petrochemical project that would require an estimated US$800 mln (Bt24.6 bln) investment. CAP's board of directors is considering whether or not the company should invest both in de-bottle-necking and downstream petrochemical production at the same time. The global petrochemical industry outlook will be taken into account before the decision is made. CAP has a naphtha cracker with a capacity of 550,000 tpa. It has two polyethylene (PE) plants, three polypropylene (PP) plants, and two styrene monomer (SM) plants. The annual production capacities of PE, PP and SM are 340,000 tons, 480,000 tons, and 320,000 tons, respectively. Investment of US$800 mln in CAP would be lower than the investment required for a new petrochemical plant, which could be as high as US$1.4 bln.