Mitsubishi Rayon and SABIC announce new joint venture to build MMA and PMMA plants

Following the “Mitsubishi Rayon and SABIC announce new joint venture to build MMA and PMMA plants in Saudi Arabia” of May 31, 2011 announcing the launch of a methyl methacrylate (‘MMA’) monomer and polymethyl methacrylate (‘PMMA’) project in Saudi Arabia between Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan, President and CEO: Hitoshi Ochi, ‘MRC’ hereafter) and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Headquarters: Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, CEO: Mohammed Al-Mady, ‘SABIC’ hereafter), MRC hereby announces the completion of incorporation procedures of the joint venture to manufacture MMA monomer and PMMA in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia and the order placement to CTCI Corporation in Taiwan for the construction of the related plants.

MRC and SABIC each have a 50% stake in the joint venture, The Saudi Methacrylates Company (‘Saudi Methacrylates’ hereafter), that has been officially established and registered on June 9. An overview of the new company can be found at the bottom of this release. Construction works on the MMA monomer and PMMA plants are planned to begin during the current year, and commercial operations are targeted to start at the new facilities in the middle of 2017. Annual production capacity for MMA monomer will be the world's largest at 250,000 tons, while the PMMA plant will produce 40,000 tons.

In the project, taking full advantage of utilizing highly competitive and secured gas feedstock, utilities and other infrastructures in Saudi Arabia, and applying the innovative ethylene-based MMA production process, “Alpha Technology” (New Ethylene Method) developed and commercialized by Lucite International, a subsidiary of MRC, new MMA monomer and PMMA businesses will be launched with overwhelming competitive strength. With MMA monomer demand expected to keep growing 1.5-2.0% higher than GDP growth rates worldwide, MRC aims to use Saudi Methacrylates as a strategic supply base for growing emerging markets such as those of Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East, Africa and so on.

Source: Mitsubishi Rayon