Kuwait's PIC will take half shares in existing plants outside the Middle East

Kuwait's PIC will take half shares in existing plants outside the Middle East

Dow Chemical and Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, are to extend their existing relationship with the formation of new joint ventures in PTA/PET and ethylene glycol.

The deals involve the US group selling half shares in existing plants outside the Middle East to PIC. This represents the Kuwaiti company’s biggest investments outside its domestic market so far.

The new PTA/PET joint venture will be known as Equipolymers and will include Dow’s PET plants in Germany and Italy, which will have total capacity of 450,000tpa when a new line opens at Schkopau, in Germany later this year.

The second joint venture will be known as MEGlobal and covers Dow’s plant in Canada as well as some product from Dow units in Europe and the US. Dow is already partnered with PIC through Equate, the polyethylene joint venture established with Union Carbide, now a Dow subsidiary.

Dow chairman and chief executive William Stavropoulos said: “These announcements mark an important step in the development of Dow’s strategy of pursuing cost advantaged feedstock positions to supply growing markets.”