ATC in US$1.5 bln deal with Mitsui

22-Dec-05

The Aromatics (Thailand) Plc (ATC) has signed agreements to sell petrochemical products worth US$1.5 billion from its new complex to Mitsui Chemical Inc and the joint venture Siam Mitsui PTA Co. Two agreements, for five years each, comprise of a US$500 mln agreement with Mitsui Chemical Inc involving the purchase and sale of benzene for 150,000 tpa, and a US$1-billion agreement with Siam Mitsui PTA Co for the purchase and sale of paraxylene for 270,000 pa. Siam Mitsui PTA is a joint venture between the Siam Cement Group and Mitsui Chemical Inc, and has a demand of one million tpa of paraxylene as feedstock for its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plants. ATC's Complex II project is expected to be ready for commercial start-up in Q3-2008, creating production capacity of 363,000 tpa of benzene and 616,000 tpa of paraxylene. With this capacity addition, total capacity of benzene will be 830,000 tpa and paraxylene will be 1.11 million tpa, maintaining ATC's position as the largest aromatics producer in Southeast Asia.