Toyo signs letter of intent for SABIC's EG plant

19-Jul-05

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) has signed a letter of intent with Japanese firm Toyo Engineering Corporation to design and construct a 700,000 metric tpa ethylene glycol plant to be built at the Yanbu National Petrochemical Co. (YANSAB) site. The new plant will boost SABIC's position as a leading global producer of EG, and help enhance the company's competitive position both worldwide and in the Middle East. By 2006, SABIC's total EG production will meet over 20% of global demand and is expected to reach 3.5 million mta. OF this, 1.5 million mt will be produced at SHARQ (Eastern Petrochemical Company, Al-Jubail); 1.20 million mt at UNITED (Jubail United Petrochemical Company); 800,000 mt at YANPET (Saudi-Yanbu Petorchemical Company, Yanbu). Faced with competition from Europe and the U.S., Saudi Basic, the world's largest chemical company by market value, plans to invest US$8 billion over the next 3 years to raise output. SABIC enjoys the advantage of proximity to readily available cheaper feedstock as compared to its European and American counterparts, who are in a constant struggle with rising costs for oil feedstock. This is the third plant project which SABIC has initiated within this complex, located at Yanbu Industrial City. YANSAB is the most recent SABIC affiliate in the Kingdom which will be the largest petrochemical complex with annual capacity exceeding 4 million MT of various petrochemical products including 1.3 million MT of Ethylene, 400,000 MT of Propylene, 900,000 MT of Polyethylene, 400,000 MT of Polypropylene, 700,000 MT of Mono Ethylene Glycol, 250,000 of Benzene and mixed of Xylene and Toluene, and 100,000 MT of Butene-1 and Butane-2.