YANBU: The National Petrochemical Industrial Company's propylene and polypropylene (pp) plant has begun operations at the industrial port city of Yanbu, 320 km north of Jeddah.
NATPET will produce 400,000 tons of pp annually on an area of more than 560,000 square meters of the latest state-of-the-art automated plant. The trial production began at 8 p.m. on Monday.
NATPET Chairman Khalid Ahmed Yusuf Zainal Alireza felicitated Dr. Italo A. Trapasso, senior advisor to the board of directors (energy and petrochemical) of Alujain Corporation, a Saudi joint stock company, for his contribution. NATPET is a subsidiary of Alujain Corporation.
NATPET President and COO Jamal J. Malaikah told reporters at the plant that NATPET was using UOP's Oleflex technology to convert propane provided by Saudi Aramco into propylene, which in turn is converted into pp using the Spheripol technology from LyondellBasell, claimed to be the world's pp technology leader.
"NATPET is claimed to be the first Saudi company to incorporate this technology in the Middle East, which makes it a leading company in the entire region," Malaikah said. Pp is used in industries ranging from packaging, wrapping, carpets, home appliances and furniture to automobiles, medical applications, road construction and among many other applications.
The company is geared to produce a wide range of pp grade product mix to serve diversified market segments, he said adding that it will market its product worldwide including the GCC, MENA, Asia and Europe.
NATPET has established a professional marketing department to promote products worldwide. It has also signed marketing agreements with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and NOBLE Marketing Group, a distribution and marketing pioneer with annual sales up to $30 billion.
The company, which is driven by its commitment to Saudization and technology localization, has 330 employees with Saudi nationals forming 42 percent of the workforce. NATPET, which was recently awarded ISO 9001:2000, has also developed an intensive technical, management and marketing training program for employees locally and globally.
NATPET's capital is SR917.5 million. It has received loans of SR2.1 billion from the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Industrial Development Fund and commercial banks.
In order to be focused on manufacturing and marketing, the company has also signed a three-year contract with AlMajdouie De Rijke for packaging, logistics, storage and delivery of products.
"NATPET looks forward to expand production and initiate pp-based industries to get the maximum added value and hire more Saudi nationals," Malaikah added.
© Arab News 2008
