MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s Sahara Petrochemicals plans to start up four joint venture plants over the next two years, completing the company’s initial expansion programme in Jubail, according to the company’s executive president, Mubasher reported.
The company, which started in 2004, will have ownership of 10 plants in the Eastern Province petrochemicals hub by the end of 2014, says Saleh Bahamdan.
Plants set to start up in 2013 include the USD500m chlor-alkali joint venture with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden), which will produce 300,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene di-chloride and 250,000 t/y of caustic soda.
Another project expected to be commissioned is an acrylic acid plant, which Sahara jointly owns with Saudi group Tasnee and the US’ Dow Chemical. The complex has proposed nameplate capacities of 145,000 t/y of acrylic acid and 160,000 t/y of butyl acrylate.
The super-absorbent polymer (Sap) plant – a joint venture of Sahara and Tasnee subsidiaries and Germany’s Evonik Industries – is also on track for commissioning by the end of 2013.
A fourth plant to produce 330,000 t/y of n-butanol is expected to come onstream by the end of 2014. The project is a joint venture of Sahara, Tasnee, Sabic, and Sadara Chemical, the latter a partnership of Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical.
Bahamdan said that Sahara is studying the possibility of starting further projects in 2015 after the current wave of construction is completed.
"There is no limit to the opportunities in expansion," says the executive president. "We are looking to do more improvement on cost – to do more with less cost."
As MRC wrote earlier, Sahara Petrochemicals's annual consolidated financial results for the period ended 31 Dec 2012, amounted: net profit - SR204.45 million compared to SR 411.58 million for the previous year with a decrease of 50%. Earnings per share (EPS) during 2012 amounted to SR.47, based on that total share count 438.8 million, compared to SR 1.35 for the period of the previous year, where average shares counted 305.8 million, as the current shares number has increased compared with the previous year due to capital increase that took place in the 4th quarter of the previous year.
Sahara Petrochemicals performs participation and supervises foundation and establishing several limited liability companies in Al Jubail Industrial City with the participation of Saudi and foreign companies that have the modern skills and technologies; to produce and market its chemical and petrochemical products such as propylene, polypropylene, ethylene and polyethylene.
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