KHOBAR: Arabian Industrial Fibers Co (Ibn Rushd), an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), signed contracts with Taiwan's CTCI and China's Sinopec Engineering to expand its capacity, SABIC said. The contract with CTCI would double Ibn Rushd's aromatics production capacity to 1.2 million tons per year from 560,000 tons and more than double its terephthalic acid capacity to 750,000 tons per year, SABIC said Tuesday. It did not give the value of the deals. The contract with Sinopec Engineering, will see the creation of a new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant and increase capacity to 750,000 tons per year from 330,000 tons, it said. "The projects will take between 24 and 27 months," SABIC said. The Ibn Rushd complex, in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, produces aromatics, purified terephthalic acid (PTA) which is used in making polyester, and polyester staples. SABIC owns 47 percent of Ibn Rushd. SABIC is restructuring and introducing new products, Mohammed Al-Mady, chief executive officer of SABIC, said in October. Meanwhile, the GCC's petrochemical industry saw a 3.7 percent increase in output last year and is well positioned to become the “”center of gravity”” in the mid-term, said Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, UAE's Minister of Foreign Trade. She said that due to cost efficiency, the region is set to supply 40 percent of incremental Asian demand for polyolefin and produce a significant supply of ethylene for the emerging markets. The Gulf's expansion continued with production surging 3.7 percent last year, she added.
