Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) celebrated yesterday a partnership in their new petrochemical complex at Tianjin, China. The two companies formed SINOPEC SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Co., Ltd, last year as a 50/50 joint-venture to build and operate the new facility. Built at a total cost of RMB 18.3 billion Yuan (US $2.7 billion), the complex will produce 3.2 million tons annually of various chemical products, including one million tons of ethylene, as well as other downstream products such as polyethylene, ethylene glycol, polypropylene, butadiene, phenol, & butene-1. The million-ton ethylene cracker, along with eight down-stream units and all utilities have been tested and are ready to begin production by the first quarter of next year, according to a report carried yesterday by SABIC"s web-site. --MORE
