Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) posted a better-than-expected surge in fourth-quarter net profit on higher prices and sales volumes for most of its products.

Sabic made SR4.58 billion ($1.22 billion) in the three months to end-December compared with SR311 million made a year-earlier, the firm said in a statement posted on the bourse’s website.   

The fourth quarter earnings came above the most optimistic of forecasts which ranged from SR3.21 billion to SR4.42 billion, according to a Reuters survey.

Meanwhile, Sabic subsidiary Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company has awarded Taiwan’s CTCI Corp a deal to manage the construction of a 210,000 tonnes per year (tpy) amines plant at its mega complex.

Mutlaq al-Morished, Kayan’s chairman, told Reuters that CTCI won the contract but did not give the value of the deal.

Under the deal, awarded recently, CTCI will manage the engineering, procurement and construction (EPCM) for the plant.

The amines plant was one of two projects Kayan retendered. The other project was for a low density polyethylene plant.

South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Company won the low density polyethylene project. US Fluor Corp, South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Daelim Industrial Company also bid for the amines project.

Kayan is 35 per cent owned by Sabic. The main units of the mega complex located in Jubail are expected to start operations in the second half of 2010.

The complex will have an annual production capacity of 6 million tonnes of petrochemicals including ethylene, propylene and ethylene glycol.

Sinopec financing

In other Sabic-related news the company said its joint venture with China’s Sinopec has obtained financing worth a total of $2.68 billion for their Tianjin petrochemical complex.   

Sabic also said in a statement that it has started trial operations at an ethylene plant and other plants in the Tianjin complex, which has a production capacity of 3.2 million tonnes per year.   

Sabic and Sinopec received financing from China Construction Bank, China Development Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Sinopec Finance Co.

Sabic will need to bring more plants online as part of plans to raise its total production to 130 million tonnes of petrochemicals by 2020, from 56 million tonnes in 2008, Mohamed Al-Mady, Sabic managing director, said in December.

Companies based in the Gulf are now relying more on government institutions’ funds to take part in project financing as banks have tightened lending.

Sabic plans to increase its investments in China, a market Al-Mady described as having good growth potential.