Sabic and Mitsubishi Rayon Company Ltd (MRC) will participate equally in a billion-dollar joint venture to manufacture methyl methacrylate monomer (MMA) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in Saudi Arabia following a Letter of Intent (LoI) they signed. 

MMA production capacity will be 250,000 tonnes annually while that of PMMA will be 30,000 tonnes. Start-up of the facilities is expected in 2013. The joint venture will utilise the ethylene-based Alpha process commercialised by Lucite, a wholly owned subsidiary of MRC, to manufacture MMA.
Sabic will be responsible for the supply of key raw materials such as ethylene and methanol for the joint venture. The two companies will also explore possibilities to produce other products identified under the LoI.
MMA and acrylic resin are widely used to produce automobile parts, car exteriors, optical screens, and home appliances, among other things. PMMA is widely used in the construction and transport sectors. It has applications in liquid crystal display (LCD), light-guided panels and light emitting diodes.
Signing the Letter of Intent for Sabic was its vice president for corporate finance and chief financial officer Mutlaq Al-Morished. Masanao Kambara, president and representative director of MRC, signed for his company.

Top 5 company
Riyadh-based Sabic has 60 plants in 40 countries including 19 world-scale complexes in Saudi Arabia. Overall production increased from 35 million tonnes in 2001 to 56 million tonnes in 2008. It ranks among the world’s top five chemical companies, and is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and advanced engineering thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilisers.
The Saudi Arabian Government owns 70 per cent of the company.
Sabic plans to boost petrochemical production by 12 million tonnes over the next two years by expanding foreign ventures and domestic plants. The increase will mainly come from a joint venture with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp or Sinopec, and from the Yanbu and eastern facilities in Saudi Arabia, chairman Prince Saud bin Abdullah said.
Mitsubishi Rayon Co Ltd has more than 30 manufacturing facilities and eight research institutes in Japan, other Asian countries, Europe and North America, and employs about 9,500 workers.