Per reports released by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Friday, SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation), the largest petrochemical enterprise across the Middle East, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) have officially launched commercial operations at their new polycarbonate manufacturing plant located in Tianjin, China. The newly operational production hub is embedded within the existing Sino-Saudi joint integrated complex co-owned exclusively by SABIC and Sinopec, namely the Sinopec-SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Joint Venture.
The large-scale Tianjin petrochemical integrated complex was founded back in 2009, consisting of nine independent production units. Its core initial operational positioning focuses on manufacturing polyethylene, polypropylene and a portfolio of derivative petrochemical chemicals. The newly built polycarbonate plant boasts a designed annual production capacity of 260,000 metric tons, marking a capacity expansion for bilateral Sino-Saudi petrochemical collaboration.
Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, Chief Executive Officer of SABIC, stated that the two corporations will continue to tap mutually beneficial growth opportunities aligned with national strategic roadmaps of Saudi Arabia and China. Industry data from Precedence Research forecasts remarkable global petrochemical market expansion: the sector market size will surge from $475 billion in 2020 to approximately $800 billion by 2030, delivering long-term bilateral cooperation potential for cross-border chemical players.
As a core pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification strategy to cut reliance on crude oil export revenue, SABIC faced prominent short-term market headwinds in Q2. The company recorded an 85% year-on-year plunge in net profit for the three-month period ending June 30, dragged by sliding global chemical product demand and continuous raw material and finished product price declines. Official financial filings show SABIC’s after-tax net profit dropped to 1.18 billion Saudi riyals (equivalent to 314.5 million US dollars), while total revenue fell nearly 34% to 37.17 billion Saudi riyals over the same quarter.
Despite bleak quarterly financial performance and ongoing industry-wide market pressure, SABIC’s board approved a cash dividend of 1.80 Saudi riyals per share for the first half of the current fiscal year, stabilizing investor confidence amid market volatility. Beyond the Tianjin joint project, SABIC has rolled out multiple cross-border and domestic capacity expansion layouts in the past 12 months. It unveiled plans to construct a crude oil-to-chemicals complex in Ras Al Khair with a daily processing capacity of 400,000 barrels. In December of last year, SABIC also signed a tripartite joint venture agreement with Oman Energy Company (OQ) and Kuwait Petroleum International to develop a new integrated petrochemical complex in Oman.
