Tasnee Petchem to debottleneck PP plant

12 December 2006 10:36  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Tasnee Petrochemicals planned to debottleneck its polypropylene (PP) joint-venture plant at Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and expand capacity by 35,000 tonnes/year to 485,000 tonnes/year in January 2007, a company source said on Tuesday. 

The plant, a joint venture between Tasnee and Basell, will not need to be shut down during the expansion, the source said. 

The main reason for the expansion was strong demand for PP in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, he added. "Demand is improving in the region for fibre, raffia and film grade PP, especially from the packaging industry," he said. 

Film-grade PP is popular in high-end packaging. The regional boom in the construction sector has boosted demand for raffia grade PP, which is used to package cement. 

The proliferation of converters in the region has also given a boost to PP demand, the source said. 

PP prices were expected to be stable or even rise a little in January from December, traders said. "End users believe that prices have hit bottom, after softening in November, as suppliers rolled over their prices in December from November," a trader said.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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