Construction work on the region’s newest polypropylene plant has proceeded ahead of schedule allowing inauguration to take place at the end of this year, two months before time.

Advanced Polypropylene Company (APPC), a Saudi joint stock venture, plans commercial production for the first quarter of 2008 instead of the second quarter as scheduled earlier, says APPC executive president Ali A Al-Shaier.
The facility will produce 450,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of polypropylene. Samsung Engineering Company Limited and its affiliate Samsung Saudi Arabia were granted a lumpsum turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contract and work has been going on since mid-2005.
Polypropylene enjoys high international demand as it can be processed by virtually all thermoplastic-processing methods. Most typically polypropylene products are manufactured by extrusion blow moulding, injection moulding and general purpose extrusion. Expanded polypropylene may be moulded in a specialist process.
Polypropylene is one of the leading materials used for film extrusion and the film market serves the main sectors of food and confectioneries and clothing.
Al-Shaier said the estimated cost of the APPC project was SR3 billion ($800 million) with funding based on 52 per cent debt and 48 per cent equity.
APPC is utilising Lummus Global’s Catofin PDH technology through Sabic which has the right to grant sublicences for the process within the GCC region. NTH has granted the propylene production technology.
Al-Shaier commented that the technology path taken by the company had been successfully implemented in other projects. The company also sees as a competitive edge the deal it signed with Samsung which Al-Shaier says was competitively priced. APPC confidence is also high from the long-term contracts it has signed with three international offtakers, one of whom is Vinmar International, a subsidiary of the Houston, Texas-based Vinmar Group which specialises in trading chemicals, plastics and raw materials.
Another offtaker is Mitsubishi Corporation, one of Japan’s largest general trading companies, an owner and operator of a number of polypropylene and polyethylene plants globally and one that is knowledgeable in matters relating to polymers and their downstream processors and consumers.
The third offtaker is Domo, a manufacturer focusing on chemicals and polymers, fibres, yarns and floor coverings. Domo also owns a 180,000 tpy polypropylene plant in the Netherlands.
The target markets are predominantly Europe, Southeast Asia, the Far East and the Middle East. .
Another competitive edge it sees is the availability of favourably priced feedstock from Saudi Aramco. Also inspiring confidence is the presence of an affiliate of the technology providers among foreign strategic investors.