Borealis to study Kazakh cracker

Austrian polyolefins maker Borealis has signed an agreement with United Chemical, an arm of the Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund, to study building an ethylene and polyethylene complex in Kazakhstan. Total output would be 1.25 million metric tons per year. A feasibility study will wrap up a year from now, and an investment decision is set for 2020. The partners are also collaborating on a polypropylene plant in the country. Over the past decade, two large chemical firms, LyondellBasell Industries and LG Chem, both pursued chemical complexes in Kazakhstan only to walk away before sinking steel into the ground.