PTT Global to invest US$11 bln by 2020 in capacity expansion, to focus on specialty and green products

06-Jul-12

PTT Global Chemical Pcl (PTTGC)- Thailand's largest petrochemical maker, plans to invest US$11 bln by 2020 to expand capacity and focus on high-margin specialties and green products. This will include investment of US$3 bln to build a new olefins cracker with estimated annual capacity of 1 mln metric tons (1.1 mln tons), Chief Executive Anon Sirisaengtaksin told Reuters in an interview. Concern about the impact of Europe's debt crisis has led PTT Global, one of the world's top 10 ethylene makers, to review its investment plans. This year, PTT will focus on maximizing benefits from a recent merger and "debottleneck" existing facilities to boost output by 70,000-80,000 metric tpa by 2014.The company is looking for a location to build the new cracker to serve growing demand in Asia, especially in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, and it is also looking at building a new bio plastic plant in the next five years. The company plans to move ahead with projects that yield high returns and do not need a lot of investment. High-volume specialties and green products are expected to contribute about 30-40% of the company's revenue within the next 10 years, up from about 10% now.