SABIC restarts bulk of PE, PP plants at Al-Jubail site

20 January 2012 16:37  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Saudi Arabia’s SABIC restarted the majority of its polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants at the Al-Jubail industrial park on Friday morning, a source close to the company said.

SABIC Saudi firm is the second major PE and PP producer to restart its plants at the Al-Jubail site.

The plants were shut down following a power outage on Thursday evening at the industrial park, which some industry sources said was caused by a power generator fire.
Official sources have yet to confirm the cause and extent of the power outage.

Al-Jubail is Saudi Arabia’s biggest polymer production site and accounts for an estimated 65% of the country’s PE output and 72% of PP output.

Production losses at SABIC’s plants are a “lot less than expected”, the source said.

The impact of the losses on February allocations have yet to be fully assessed.

“There will be most likely some volume cuts but nothing major. The company will be confirming that, hopefully by tomorrow or [the] day after,” the source added.

Offers from the producer – to be announced next week – would be higher for February.

“The offers will be impacted – it’s not only SABIC but there are other suppliers [at the Al-Jubail site],” the source said. “The market is already expecting an increase. This will just add to the sentiment.”

SABIC markets PP, PE from the following plants:

Company	Product	Nameplate capacity (’000 tonnes/year)
Arabian Petrochemical Co (Petrokemya)	HDPE	400
	LLDPE	400
Eastern Petrochemical (SHARQ)	HDPE	400
		400
	LLDPE	400
		350
Al-Jubail Petrochemical Co (Kemya)	LLDPE	850
	LDPE	220
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co	HDPE	400
	PP	350
Ibn Zahr (Saudi European Petrochemical Co)	PP	320
	PP	320
	PP	500

Additional reporting from Ong Sheau Ling and Chow Bee Lin in Singapore

By: Cuckoo James
+44 (0) 208 652 3214

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