SABIC to expand with GE polycarbonate tech

21 May 2007 23:45  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW YORK (ICIS news)--SABIC will use GE Plastics’ polycarbonate (PC) technology to expand its own production in Saudi Arabia, SABIC’s chief executive said on Monday.

“We are building a large 260,000 tonne/year polycarbonate facility in the kingdom, and this acquisition of a company with extensive experience in polycarbonate will help us get started in the right way to supply the growing Asian market,” said SABIC CEO Mohammed Al-Mady in an interview with ICIS news.

SABIC plans to build polycarbonate capacity in Saudi Arabia as part of the Kayan Petrochemical project. SABIC has a 35% stake in Kayan.

In addition, it plans to build acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) capacity within its Petrokemya project.

“We can now use GE’s ABS technology in the Petrokemya plant,” said Al-Mady.

For Kayan Petrochemical, which has already selected polycarbonate technology from Asahi Glass, SABIC will make use of “GE’s distribution and marketing qualifications for this project,” said Al-Mady.

GE Plastics’ research-and-development capabilities and personnel will play a big role in SABIC’s future expansion plans, he added.

“There are many qualified people in GE Plastics that can help us grow aggressively throughout the world, especially in specialties,” Al-Mady said.

SABIC beat out a number of strategic and private equity players to acquire GE Plastics for $11.6bn (€8.6bn).

($1 = €0.74)
By: Joseph Chang
+1 713 525 2653

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