SABIC Invests In China

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. will invest $100 million in the construction of an R&D center in Shanghai. Scheduled to be completed in 2013, the center will house 200 scientists who will work on a variety of engineering plastics for use in industries such as automotive and electronics. The facility will also provide work space for 200 additional staffers who are now based at other locations. The center will be located in Kangqiao, an industrial zone in Shanghai. At the same time, a joint venture between SABIC and Sinopec has started building a previously announced polycarbonate facility with an annual capacity of 260,000 metric tons. The plant is in Tianjin, China, where the two companies already operate a petrochemical complex featuring a 1 million-metric-ton ethylene cracker. Implementing a phosgene-free process, the polycarbonate plant will cost $1.7 billion and is scheduled to come on-line in 2015. To further support its Chinese polycarbonate business, SABIC is setting up a compounding facility in the southwestern city of Chongqing. It is scheduled to open in 2013.