SAUDI Basic Industries Corp plans to sign a final accord on a US$1.7-billion chemicals joint venture with Asia's biggest oil refiner by the end of this year to tap rising energy demand in China.
Sabic, as the world's biggest chemical maker is known, will own 50 percent of the ethylene derivatives plant in north China's Tianjin that China Petroleum & Chemical Corp is building, Mohamed al-Mady, chief executive of Sabic, said yesterday at the Boao Forum in the island province of Hainan.
Sabic plans to expand in China to tap the nation's rising demand for products used to make auto parts, packaging and plastics. The Asian country will account for 25 percent of global chemical demand by 2015, according to Exxon Mobil Corp. Sabic added United States assets with the purchase of GE's plastics unit for US$11.6 billion last year and expanded in Europe through the 2002 purchase of Royal DSM NV's petrochemicals division.
"China is a growing market, an important market for Sabic," al-Mady said. "We have plans to make investments here in China and to increase our investments," he said.
Sabic will decide on the financing after final agreement is reached, al-Mady told Bloomberg News.