Sabic affiliate Yanbu National Petrochemical Company (Yansab) has announced its first shipment of ethylene glycol (EG) from its plant in Yanbu Industrial City. The first EG increment amounted to 5,000 tonnes and was sold to European customers.
Hamad Mutlaq Al-Morished, Yansab chairman and Sabic vice-president, corporate finance, stated that total annual capacity for EG production at Yansab amounted to 770,000 tonnes, bringing Sabic’s global EG capacity to 3.7 million tonnes.
The Yansab complex comprises eight world-class plants with a total annual capacity of more than 4 million tonnes of petrochemical products, including (besides EG) 1.3 million tonnes of LDPE, 400,000 tonnes of propylene, 800,000 tonnes of polyethylene (both low- and high-density), 400,000 tonnes of polypropylene, 250,000 tonnes of benzene and a mix of xylene and toluene, 100,000 tonnes of butane-1 and butane-2, and 25,000 tonnes of MTBE.
The company applies the latest state-of-the-art global technologies for the operation of its petrochemical complex, some of which have been introduced for the first time in the kingdom. The complex produces olefins, aromatics, oxygenates and various polymer products that are used in plastic industries around the world, including the carpet industry, textiles, packaging, toys, household goods and appliances, automotives and engineering industries. Other products are used for antifreeze in car and machinery cooling systems as well as polyester fiber for manufacturing (PET) and water and gas high-pressure pipes, transparent packaging — such as bags and film — and industry-based rubber tapes for woven and non-woven fabrics, water pipes, and materials for injection moulding of household goods and blankets.
High safety performance
Yansab president Abdul Rahman Al-Fagih explained that when the company first went live with the start up of production at the Yanbu complex in July of this year, it was able to reach the designed production capacity in record time while maintaining the highest safety performance. The project completed more than 40 million man hours without a lost time injury, to become one of the best projects of its kind worldwide.
Total Yansab capital amounts to SR5.6 billion ($1.5 billion), with Sabic owning 51 per cent of the company and Sabic Industrial Investments Company owning an additional 4 per cent. Additionally, a group of 17 Saudi and Gulf-based companies own 10 per cent of the capital. The remaining 35 per cent was offered in an IPO for public subscription by Saudi nationals, and the IPO allocation was completed on January 5, 2006.
