BEIJING - A subsidiary of British chemical giant INEOS Group will build a plant with an annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a lightweight plastic used in automobiles and electrical appliances, in China.

The plant, to be located in Ningbo city in Zhejiang province, will be one of a dozen petrochemical-manufacturing plants in the region, as China is pushing to expand its petrochemical capacity to meet the increasing demand.

The construction of the project, wholly owned by the Germany-headquartered INEOS Styrolution, is scheduled to start this year and will be completed by 2023, the company said in a statement late Thursday, without providing any investment details.

"China is the biggest ABS market in the world. This new investment will give us a tremendous opportunity to provide our customers in the region with locally produced ABS grades," Steve Harrington, President Asia-Pacific at INEOS Styrolution said.

The move aims to increase INEOS Styrolution's manufacturing footprint and market access in China and rest of Asia.

The decision to build the plant comes after INEOS Styrolution acquired two polystyrene plants in China from French energy firm Total SA in February last year with a combined annual production capacity of 400,000 tonnes.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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