JUBAIL: The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu is planning to construct two PlasChem Parks in Jubail and Yanbu Industrial Cities II to provide numerous industrial services such as products packaging to all new refineries, petrochemical, and downstream plants to be built in those areas.
The Royal Commission's director of investments & industrial clusters, Faysal Al-Rasheed told Arab News that those PlasChem Parks are a combined initiative of the Royal Commission, the industries, and Government bodies.
"The planned PlasChem Parks will be a world-class, globally competitive industrial cluster dedicated for downstream petrochemical and plastic conversion products. They will give support for the industries in term of material availability, access to customers, and investor technical support" Al-Rasheed said.
According to him the PlasChem Parks are to attract the plastic downstream conversion industries, to house the downstream chemical manufacturers, and to provide common services & facilities.
"Such projects will add unique advantages for Jubail and Yanbu in term of value addition and availability of feedstock. The two cities have global scale locations and logistics, with a world class infrastructure to support the parks as " One Stop Shop" services," he said.
He pointed it out that those parks will generate more employment (up to 6 times) than the upstream industry, making low investments, compared to upstream petrochemical investments. They will bridge the economic gap between petrochemicals and the key demand sectors (automotive, packaging, and construction), and provide easy access to European and Asian end markets.
It is planned that the PlasChem Parks location will have easy access to logistics, transportation, & other infrastructure. The PlasChem Park in Jubail II will consist of a Plastic Park and a Chemical Park. Initially 7 sq.km will be developed while there will be an additional area for future expansion. Yanbu development will be on similar lines as Jubail.
The parks' tenants will collectively form a competitive, mutually beneficial cluster. There will be resin and machinery suppliers, service providers, additive suppliers, processors, converters, wholesalers/ retailers, recyclers/distributors.
The parks will host conversion of a large set of products such as construction products (pipes, panels, insulation, power and utilities), automotive components (bumpers, seats, dashboard, lights, tires, coating and painting). Packaging and containers (bottles, food containers, packaging materials). Electronics (personal computers, cell phones, A&Vs, office appliances). Textile (clothing/apparel, industrial garments, ropes). Paints and coatings (automotive coating, electronics coating, industrial coating). Solvents (car coolants, antifreeze, industrial solvents).
The key implementation requirements will be platform, utilities, logistics, and services that should be identified. The platform requires land, infrastructure, incentives, effective zoning and maximum synergies. The utilities require water connection and sewage disposal and measure to ensure power reliability, and common utility corridors.
Transport & Logistics require multi-modal transport availability, integration with railroad, and customs / ports efficiency. The services require provision of government services, labor housing requirements, medical facilities, social and recreation facilities, and one-stop service centers.
The PlasChem Parks will meet business and technical needs of converters such as raw materials at competitive prices, skilled labor, domestic & regional markets, export markets, processing technologies, production incentives, R&D and training center, products specification standards, and land, utilities & infrastructure.
© Arab News 2012
