Singapore chemicals hub Jurong Island celebrates milestone

25 September 2009 12:46  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Jurong Island, Singapore’s vast chemical hub, has marked the completion of its land reclamation more than 20 years ahead of schedule, sources said on Friday.

Cedric Foo, the chairman of JTC Corp, which is the owner-operator of Jurong Island, welcomed guests to a ceremony at the 3,000-hectare man-made island that was created from seven offshore islands to the south of Singapore.

Fifteen years ago, Jurong Island’s size totalled only 991 hectares, Foo said.

When reclamation work started in 1995, it was expected to be completed by 2030, he said.

The initial aim of the project was to facilitate Singapore’s rapidly expanding chemical industry, and it was decided that the islands would be amalgamated to create a huge chemical site.

The concept behind Jurong Island is to have companies share infrastructure, services and facilities, which help to reduce overheads and improve efficiency.

Foo noted that in 2000, 61 petrochemical companies with a total investment of $21bn (€14m) were represented on Jurong Island. This has now risen to 95 firms, contributing a total investment of more than $31bn.

Companies operating on the island include Air Products, AkzoNobel, Asahi Kasei, Celanese, Chevron Philips, Eastman Chemical, ExxonMobil, Huntsman Corp, Mitsui Chemicals, Shell, Sumitomo Chemicals and Teijin, according to JTC .

“Notwithstanding the milestone event today, we will continue to find ways to adjust the Jurong Island profile to bring about stronger integration for greater operating efficiencies by the companies, and in particular to include new entrants,” said Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore’s trade and industry minister.

“In the longer term, our plan is to position Jurong Island as the industrial development model of tomorrow, one which couples world class competitiveness with sustainable and responsible development growth,” said Lim.

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By: Andy Brice
+44 20 8652 3214

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