Saudi petchems share on the rise

05 March 2007 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Saudi Arabia is set to grab at least 13% of the world's share of total petrochemical capacity by 2009. This will represent a 50% increase over the past decade.

Despite growth throughout the petrochemical industry, this will still not be enough to provide adequate employment in the kingdom, warned Moayyed al-Qurtas, CEO of the National Industrialisation Company (Tasnee).

"The biggest challenge for Saudi and the Gulf is ensuring economies grow in a way that increases labour supply," he said at a recent conference in Dubai.

The oil, gas and petrochemical industries are characterised by being capital-intensive, but do not offer mass employment.

As a rule of thumb, every $1m (€757m) of investment provides one job in petrochemicals, compared with 200 jobs in the processing industry.

Al-Qurtas said that the industry will have to diversify further downstream into the processing sector, much like parts of Asia.

He refused to comment on Tasnee's move to buy Lyondell Chemical's titanium dioxide (TiO2) business for $1.2bn.

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