The $2.7 billion project will provide high quality petrochemical products to the Chinese market

SAUDI Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) have entered into a partnership to create a new petrochemical complex at Tianjin, China.

The $1 billion JV between Sabic and Mitsubishi will build a plant to make 250,000 tonnes a year of methyl methacrylate with operations beginning in 2013

SABIC and Mitsubishi Rayon have agreed to set up a joint venture making materials used for cars in a bid to compete with US and European rivals including BASF.

Work on Sabic’s new multi-million-dollar facility has progressed apace and the target is to get the new plant up and running quickly

SABIC UK Petrochemicals is gearing up to bring its new low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant at Wilton on stream as it continues to battle hard against one of the most severe downturns the chemical industry has ever experienced.

Sabic’s investment is a major step to help the company become a global supplier to the worldwide automotive industry. The significant capacity expansion will enable Sabic to support the growth of its automotive customers in Western and Eastern Europe

COMING on stream by the end of the year, the new Sabic speciality compounding facility is the biggest green field compounding plant ever build in Europe and demonstrates clearly Sabic’s commitment to the automotive industry and ambition to become leading in the global automotive field.

Sabic Innovative Plastics’ Flexible Noryl resin is eco-progressive and provides a much better environmental choice compared with halogenated materials like PVC

SABIC Innovative Plastics has announced that LTK Industries, a leading Hong Kong-based wire and cable OEM and long-term customer, is driving the use of Sabic Innovative Plastics’ eco-progressive flexible Noryl resin into appliance wiring material (AWM) applications used in consumer electronics.

The Yansab complex comprises eight world-class plants with a total annual capacity of more than 4 million metric tonnes of petrochemical products

SAUDI Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) affiliate, Yanbu National Petrochemical Company (Yansab), made its first shipment of ethylene glycol (EG) from its plant in Yanbu Industrial City recently. The first EG increment amounted to 5,000 metric tonnes and was sold to European customers.

The petrochemical leader will set up two new application development centres over the coming 12 months in Riyadh and Baroda, India

THE past 12 months have been “very challenging” for the plastics industry, says Sabic Innovative Plastics CEO Charlie Crew. However, in the last six months or so have seen a progressive increase in demand, which he hopes is more than just inventory rebuilding.

Sabic has sales offices throughout the Far East – in Beijing, Shenzhan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Singapore, Tokyo, Manila, Seoul, Taipei and Ho Chi Minh City

THIRTY years ago, Saudi Arabia was an importer of petrochemicals. It is now a major exporter, providing some seven per cent of the world’s supply of basic petrochemicals. Last year, according to the WTO, these exports were worth $14.3 billion. Together with plastics, they account for over half of the kingdom’s nonoil exports.

Investments are led by Sabic, which is expected to spend a minimum of $48 billion on 30 major petrochemical projects between 2011 and 2020

HUGE new industrial sector investments in Saudi Arabia are driving interest among local, regional and international companies in the third Gulf Industry Fair (GIF) to be held in Bahrain early next year, according to organisers Hilal Conferences & Exhibitions (HCE).

Atheeb Intergraph Saudi Company’s efficient team in Saudi Arabia provides support for the complete range of Intergraph solutions

ATHEEB Intergraph Saudi Company (AISC), a leading provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualise complex data, says that Sabic is standardising with Intergraph’s SmartPlant Enterprise including SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant Foundation as its engineering design and data management platform at all of its manufacturing affiliates.

Honeywell’s strategy is straightforward; it focuses on helping customers improve productivity through energy and efficiency savings, MANSOUR BELHADJ, sales director, HPS Middle East tells K S SREEKUMAR

HONEYWELL, a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, sees continued growth in the Middle East in the coming years.

Maintenance at the right time plays a key role in diagnosing motor faults, says KHALID TARRAF, CBM consultant, ThyssenKrupp Xervon, Saudi Arabia

MCSA (Motor Current Signature Analysis) is considered a new technique for CBM (condition based maintenance). It is applied on electrical motors and has the same advantages as that of CBM, like avoiding unplanned shut downs, accidents and provides a good indication about the condition of the electric motors. It can be said that MCSA is a way of diagnostics to detect motor faults and to detect future faults.

Emerson develops Adaptive Model Predictive Controller (AMPC) to enable optimisation of batch processes with varying and long dead-times. It also optimises production and enhances a profitability

Emerson Process Management’s advanced process control specialists have developed an Adaptive Model Predictive Controller (AMPC) that is optimising production and improving profitability at Sabic Innovative Plastics’ Bergen op Zoom facility in The Netherlands.

Saudi Leather Industries Company (SLIC) is doubling its production capacity with the installation of a Desma injection moulding machine with 30 stations

SAUDI Leather Industries Company (SLIC) is a pioneer in manufacturing industrial safety, military, work and formal footwear supplying to leading industrial and defense establishments, apart from construction and contracting companies. It is now doubling its production capacity by the year-end with the installation of a Desma injection moulding machine with 30 stations.

MIS Arabia has built two big process columns in Jubail for one of the largest ethylene plants in the world

MARITIME Industrial Services Arabia (MIS Arabia) has completed building two large process columns (gasoline fractionator and quench tower) with dimensions of 10 metre diameter and 60 metre length and weighing 600 and 800 tonnes respectively in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Despite, several technical changes and additional scope of work added to these columns, MIS Arabia has successfully managed to deliver them on time and with high quality.

With its vast experience in the field of construction and maintenance of storage tanks, pressure vessels and major steel structures, Al Zamil Metal Works Factory is taking new strides in the field of EPC contracting

SAUDI-BASED Al Zamil Metal Works Factory (AZMF), a leading player in the design, supply and manufacture of steel products, has augmented its plant and machinery to take on some of the new tank requirements for Jubail Export Refinery, Yanbu Export Refinery, Ras Tanura Refinery expansion, Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), independent power projects (IPP), Ma’aden and Sabic expansion.

Petrochemicals companies in the region are turning to more readily available feedstocks such as naphtha

MIDDLE East petrochemicals producers pitch for ethane as their feedstock of choice, carrying a price advantage that would be difficult to replicate with other raw materials. But a growing number of petrochemicals plants are widening the feedstock base beyond this cheap core ingredient, with heavier liquid feedstocks, such as naphtha and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), which are fast emerging as convincing alternatives.