Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) are expanding the investment and capacity of their 50-50 joint venture project in Tianjin, China.
Sabic of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Beijing-based Sinopec signed an agreement in late June in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during China Vice President Xi Jinping's visit there. Both firms are state-owned.
The investment in the petrochemical complex will exceed $2.5 billion, Sabic announced, which is more than the $1.7 billion figure released earlier this year.
The Tianjin complex is Sabic's first manufacturing center in Asia, said Weena Tan, spokeswoman for Sabic Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. ``This does not include those [production plants] of Sabic Innovative Plastics,'' she said.
The Tianjin project's overall capacity will be about 8.8 billion pounds, including 2.6 billion pounds of ethylene and other products such as polypropylene, butadiene, phenol and butene-1.
A Sabic news release said the venture also could feasibly add polycarbonates by using raw materials made there based on Sabic IP technology. Officials said in April that the site will have capacity of 1.3 billion pounds of polyethylene and 882 million pounds of ethylene glycol a year.
The complex is scheduled to be completed in September 2009.