Dow completed main financing project for Sadara

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical, an American multinational chemical corporation, has announced the signing of the main financing for the Sadara project, reported the company on its site.

Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), Dow’s joint venture with Saudi Aramco, entered into definitive agreements with certain export credit agencies, commercial banks and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for approximately USD10.5 billion of additional project financing.

The financing supplements the USD2 billion raised through a Sukuk Islamic bond issuance in April, 2013, bringing the total Sadara project financing raised to approximately USD12.5 billion, which will be used to fund the construction and start-up of the joint venture.

Financial close of the project financing is expected to occur in the third quarter of this year.

"Securing the financing for this historic project is the achievement of a significant and critical milestone," said Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive officer. "Sadara is a cornerstone of Dow’s growth strategy. The joint venture will introduce a differentiated product slate from a competitive, low-cost position which will transform the landscape of our industry and the chemicals and plastics sector in Saudi Arabia."

Bill Weideman, Dow’s executive vice president and chief financial officer commented: "This high-quality investment is expected to provide a competitive cost position for the company, while capturing customer demand in emerging regions and driving high-margin, sustainable global growth."

The formation of this joint venture is a major step forward in Dow’s strategy to drive long-term profitable growth in its downstream, innovation-driven businesses and in fast-growing regions such as Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Eastern Europe. The joint venture is expected to deliver EBITDA margins of 35-40% and a stream of equity earnings for Dow averaging USD500 million annually during the first 10 years following its start-up.

Sadara is building a world-scale, fully integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City 2, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The complex will be comprised of 26 manufacturing units, will possess flexible cracking capabilities and is expected to produce more than 3 million metric tons of high-value performance plastics and specialty chemical products. The first production units are expected to come on-line in the second half of 2015, with full production starting in mid-2016. As MRC wrote previously, petrochemical company Sadara has recently contracted Intertec to protect around 1,000 field-based process analysers at its new complex in Saudi Arabia.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately USD57 billion. The company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, a Japanese chemical company, has announced a further expansion of its dental material business with acquisition of 50.01% of issued and outstanding shares of DENTCA, Inc. on June 20, 2013, reported the company in its press-release.

"Mitsui Chemicals, in line with one of its strategies in the FY2011 Mid-term Business Plan, has expanded its portfolio in businesses resilient to changing economic conditions such as healthcare," stated Minoru Koshibe, Mitsui Chemicals Executive Vice President. "As part of this strategy, Mitsui Chemicals targets active expansion including M&As, such as this April’s acquisition of the dental materials business of German Heraeus Holdings GmbH, which has a global manufacturing and sales network."

The dentures market is expected to continue to grow leveraged by the increase in aging of world-wide populations and rising incomes in emerging countries.

Mitsui Chemicals targets expansion of its global denture business through DENTCA's cutting-edge denture design technology using CAD/CAM and its own advanced material development and processing technology to develop high-performance dentures that meet global needs. In addition, both parties will benefit from the synergistic effect brought by the abundant selection of dental-related materials of Heraeus Dental.

As MRC informed earlier, Mitsui Chemicals Inc. detailed its 1 April 2013 organizational restructuring intended to support further acceleration of its portfolio transformation and implementation of safety directives. The plan involves restructuring of research and development, strengthening its safety management structure and restructuring of the Finance and Accounting Division.

DENTCA, with its head office in the United States, develops, manufactures, and distributes dentures using new cutting edge computer-aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) technology, and proprietary 3-Dimensional modeling and printing technology.

Mitsui Chemicals,a Japanese chemical company, is a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. Mitsui Chemicals’ business portfolio includes petrochemicals, basic chemicals, polyurethanes, functional polymeric materials, functional chemicals, and films and sheets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - In May, imports of PET to the Russian market fell more than twofolds compared to April of this year, and totalled about 11,000 tonnes, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Imports of Chinese PET decreased by 63% compared to April and reached 4,800 tonnes. A significant decrease was seen in the imports of Korean PET. Imports from South Korea to Russia fell by 34% to 4,400 tonnes.

According to the source, amid high season major converters increase purchases of domestic brands, which strengthens the demand for Russian PET. The source also noted that direct contracts with major Asian producers require buying large volumes of the material.

He said the purchases of Asian granulate have not been reduced and the decrease of the imports in May will be offset by June ones.

In general, Russia's imports of PET in January-May 2013 fell by almost 7% compared to the same period in the previous year and amounted to 75,700 tonnes.


Russian producers continue the policy of import replacement. Polief's expansion, which is scheduled on the second half of 2013, will enhance the replacement of imported material.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip was awarded a services contract by BP Zhuhai Chemical Company Limited, a joint venture between BP and Zhuhai Port Co. Ltd, for the execution of a new world-scale purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant at their Zhuhai site in the Guangdong Province, China, according to the company's press-rease.

Technip's scope includes the management of the engineering, procurement and construction services, executed by a team integrated with the client.

The new plant, with a capacity of 1,250,000 tonnes per year, will use BP's latest proprietary technology and is expected to come on stream at the end of 2014.

Technip’s operating center in Rome, Italy, will execute the contract.

This award falls within the framework of the on-going alliance between BP and Technip for PTA and follows Technip’s completion of the Zhuhai 1 and 2 plants, the Zhuhai 2 expansion project as well as the basic and front-end engineering design for the Zhuhai 3 plant.

Purified terephthalic acid (PTA) has the form of a white and crystalline powder primarily applied as raw material in the production of polyester fibers and plastic materials.

As MRC reported earlier, ZapSibNeftekhim LLC, an affiliate of JSC Sibur Holding, awarded two front-end engineering and design (FEED) contracts to Technip for polyethylene plants located in Tobolsk, in the Tyumen region of Russia.
The first contract concerns a linear-low/high-density gas phase polyethylene plant. And in early June, Technip was awarded by Oil Projects Company SCOP a significant contract for project management consultancy (PMC) services for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase of the Karbala refinery, Iraq.

Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry. Present in 48 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Further to the previous announcement, which was published in Tadawul on Dec 26, 2012 Sahara announces that an affiliate company of Tasnee and Sahara Olefins Company (Saudi Acrylic Acid Company) has signed on Sunday (16/6/2013) a tolling and processing agreement with Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company (Saudi Kayan) and Saudi Butanol Company (SaBuco), said 4-traders.

Sabuco is a special purpose joint venture company established by Saudi Kayan, Sadara, and SAAC for the purposes of owning and funding a the Butanol production plant (Butanol Plant).

The tolling and processing agreement governs the terms on which, SAAC, Sadara and Saudi Kayan shall supply propylene to the Butanol Plant for conversion into butanol products, and their corresponding rights to offtake such butanol products.

The design capacity of the Butanol Plant is 330,000 metric tons per annum of n-butanol and 11,000 metric tons per annum of iso-butanol, which is scheduled to go on-stream on the first quarter of 2015.

As MRC reported earlier, Sahara Petrochemicals' net profit in 2012 amounted to SR 204.45 million compared to SR 411.58 million for the previous year with a decrease of 50%. However, the company's net profit surged 1,187 % to SR64.49 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to SR5.01 million for the same quarter last year, and an increase of 48% from SR43.71 million from the preceding quarter.

Sahara owns 43.16% of SAAC and will announce any development in this regard later on.
Sadara Chemical Company is a joint venture, formed by Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company in Saudi Arabia.
MRC