Al-Waha to achieve commercial PP output at Al-Jubail in Q4

28 July 2009 08:31  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Saudi Arabia’s Al-Waha Petrochemical Co expects to achieve commercial production at its new polypropylene (PP) plant at Al-Jubail in the fourth quarter of 2009, a source close to the company said on Tuesday.

The 450,000 tonne/year plant had already begun trial runs but it would be a few months before all the performance tests were completed, the source added.  

Company officials were not available for comment.

“This is the world’s largest PP unit using LyondellBasell’s Spherizone technology, hence it’s taking a long time to achieve commercial production,” the source said.

The plant is sourcing propylene from a 450,000 tonne/year propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit. “The PDH unit is currently running at low rates, but the rates will be stepped up once the PP plant achieves commercial output,” the source said.

The PP plant would produce homopolymer as well as impact and random copolymer PP grades, the source added.

“The company is currently exporting on-spec and off-spec product to Middle East markets, but will start exporting to Asian markets once the plant starts producing significant volumes of on-spec product,” the source said.

Al-Waha Petrochemical is a joint venture between Sahara Petrochemical Co and LyondellBasell.

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By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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