MOSCOW (MRC) -- Turkey's first and only integrated petrochemical plant, Petkim, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), reported a TL 145 million (approximately USD20 million) profit in the second quarter of 2020, reported Chemweek.
According to the statement made by the company on Monday, Petkim’s sales revenue reached TL 2.2 billion with domestic sales recording a 10% increase in the March-May period compared with the previous quarter.
During the period, the plant, located in the Izmir province in the Aegean region, prioritized the production of medical supplies and raw material for packaging to help the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Anar Mammadov, head of SOCAR Turkey's refining and petrochemicals department, said the STAR refinery located near Petkim continued to supply the plant with the raw material naphtha without any interruptions.
“This situation demonstrated the importance of the STAR Refinery as an investment and how the STAR-Petkim integration was based on a correct strategy,” Mammadov noted.
He added that the company was able to reach its 2020 budget targets despite the pandemic.
The STAR Refinery stands as the largest investment made by a foreign direct investor in Turkey. It became fully operational in 2019 after it was launched in October 2018 and was carried out with an investment of USD6.3 billion by SOCAR Turkey.
The STAR refinery and Petkim are located in the same area in the Aliaga peninsula of Izmir.
As MRC informed earlier, SOCAR has plans for another petrochemical facility investment in Izmir in partnership with British Petroleum (BP) with an estimated cost of USD1.8 billion. Earlier it was reported that SOCAR and BP applied to the relevant institutions in Turkey to establish a joint petrochemical company, which will be called Mercury complex, in April 2020.
The construction of the new petrochemical complex is expected to enable Turkey to cover the current account deficit by USD6 billion annually. Moreover, the project will increase the share of SOCAR in petrochemical market of Turkey to 35-40%. Construction of the complex was planned to begin during the current year in order to put the enterprise into operation in 2023-2025. However, due to low oil prices and to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project implementation has been postponed until 2021. The enterprise will produce 1.25 million tons of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), 840 thousand tons of paraxylene (PX), 340 thousand tons of benzene.
PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes of material in June.
Petkim is the leading petrochemical company of Turkey. Specializing in petrochemical manufacturing, the company produces ethylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and other chemical building blocks for use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other consumer and industrial products.
MRC