Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Japan's second-biggest trading house, is mulling a joint venture in Saudi Arabia, planned by Saudi International Petrochemical Co. The project, to be built at an estimated investment outlay of US$7-8 bln, will produce ethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene, using cheap natural gas from Saudi Arabia as feedstock. Production is estimated to commence from 2011 at the ethylene plant, to be built in Jubail, with an annual output capacity of 1-1.3 million tons, making it one of the world's largest single plants.
This will be the third Japanese companies establishing and operating petrochemical facilities in Saudi Arabia, and will be Mitsui's first large petrochemical project in the Middle East since it was forced to withdraw from Iran-Japan Petrochemical Co. before completion in 1989. The predecessors of Mitsui in the Middle East region are Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp.
08-Feb-07 
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