SABIC / SK GLOBAL
Asian PE joint venture ready to start / USD 640m investment / SK contributes technology
Sabic SK Nexlene Company, the 50:50 metallocene polyethylene joint venture between Saudi Arabian petrochemicals giant Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com) and SK Global Chemical (Seoul / South Korea; www.skchem.com) has been finalised and is ready to start operations. Plans for the link-up were announced in May of last year – see Plasteurope.com of 29.05.2014.
The new partners intend to invest around USD 640m in the business, which will be headquartered at Singapore and include a 230,000 t/y metallocene LLDPE, polyolefin plastomer and polyolefin elastomer plant at Ulsan / South Korea. The deal foresees SK selling its “Nexlene” technology arm to the joint venture for use in the PE plant. Financial analysts said the Korean group is likely to use the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt. The jv will also include a plant at Ulsan manufacturing a range of high-performance ethylene alpha olefin copolymer products.
This will be Sabic’s second investment in Asia-Pacific. Earlier it partnered with Sinopec (Beijing / China; www.sinopec.com) on the 50:50 Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical Company (SSTPC) joint venture to produce 260,000 t/y of polycarbonate – see Plasteurope.com of 11.04.2012. With Nexlene, the Saudi group said it now has access to “the most complete polyethylene technology platforms within the petrochemical industry.”
Capacity expansions and construction of additional production facilities are planned for the coming years, Sabic said. Output of the metallocene PE plant initially planned to be operated by SK subsidiary Korea Nexlene Company (KNC) is designed to meet growing demand from the advanced packaging, automotive, healthcare, footwear and E&E industries. In the packaging sector, the Nexlene mLLDPE grades will go into production of lighter flexible food packaging and wrapping films. They are also said to be suitable to manufacture pipes and consumer goods.
The solidification of Sabic’s partnership with the Korean company will complement its own polymers portfolio and enable a more varied, cost-effective and customer-focused selection of products, said Abdulrahman Al Fageeh, executive vice president of the Sabic Polymers unit. Joining forces will allow both partners to grow in the highly specialised polyethylene market by providing high-value polymer products to global customers, he added.
“By growing our presence in Korea we are opening up new markets globally and reinforcing our position as a global leader – a major goal of our 2025 strategy,” said Yousef Al Benyan, acting vice chairman and CEO of Sabic.
The new partners intend to invest around USD 640m in the business, which will be headquartered at Singapore and include a 230,000 t/y metallocene LLDPE, polyolefin plastomer and polyolefin elastomer plant at Ulsan / South Korea. The deal foresees SK selling its “Nexlene” technology arm to the joint venture for use in the PE plant. Financial analysts said the Korean group is likely to use the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt. The jv will also include a plant at Ulsan manufacturing a range of high-performance ethylene alpha olefin copolymer products.
This will be Sabic’s second investment in Asia-Pacific. Earlier it partnered with Sinopec (Beijing / China; www.sinopec.com) on the 50:50 Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical Company (SSTPC) joint venture to produce 260,000 t/y of polycarbonate – see Plasteurope.com of 11.04.2012. With Nexlene, the Saudi group said it now has access to “the most complete polyethylene technology platforms within the petrochemical industry.”
Capacity expansions and construction of additional production facilities are planned for the coming years, Sabic said. Output of the metallocene PE plant initially planned to be operated by SK subsidiary Korea Nexlene Company (KNC) is designed to meet growing demand from the advanced packaging, automotive, healthcare, footwear and E&E industries. In the packaging sector, the Nexlene mLLDPE grades will go into production of lighter flexible food packaging and wrapping films. They are also said to be suitable to manufacture pipes and consumer goods.
The solidification of Sabic’s partnership with the Korean company will complement its own polymers portfolio and enable a more varied, cost-effective and customer-focused selection of products, said Abdulrahman Al Fageeh, executive vice president of the Sabic Polymers unit. Joining forces will allow both partners to grow in the highly specialised polyethylene market by providing high-value polymer products to global customers, he added.
“By growing our presence in Korea we are opening up new markets globally and reinforcing our position as a global leader – a major goal of our 2025 strategy,” said Yousef Al Benyan, acting vice chairman and CEO of Sabic.
08.07.2015 Plasteurope.com 935 [231660-0]
Published on 08.07.2015
German version of this article...