Power outage may shave Al Jubail PE, PP makers' Q1 sales by 10%

20 January 2012 08:15  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) producers based in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, may see a 10% decline in their first-quarter revenue compared to the fourth, following a power outage that will keep their plants shut for days, a Dubai-based equity analyst said on Friday.

The facilities halted production on 19 January and may not resume operations until after five to seven days, the analyst who covers the Middle Eastern petrochemical industry said.

Al-Jubail accounts for a huge portion of Saudi Arabia’s total polymer production -

about 65% of PE and 72% PP, according to industry estimates.

For the Middle East region as a whole, the share of Al Jubail to total PE production is 45%, and 57% for PP, industry sources said.

A Saudi producer said the power outage in Al-Jubai lasted only a couple of hours and several plants were in the progress of restarting.

“The polymer units should be restarting within the next few days. So the loss in production should not have a significant impact on prices,” the Saudi producer said.

Additional reporting by Ong Sheau Ling

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections

By: Chow Bee Lin
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