As the world’s fourth largest chemical company and the largest non-oil industry company in the Middle East, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is expanding in China – investing US$100 million in Shanghai to build a new technology center is the latest move. Yesterday, the foundation stone laying ceremony was held in Kangqiao, Shanghai. Li Lei, vice president of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation and president of North Asia, later accepted an exclusive interview with this reporter and said that in the future will further increase production capacity in China and prepare to get involved in MDI, TDI areas.
“Our global deployment is very successful. In the future, we will continue to maintain the advantages of large-scale upstream petrochemical products while looking for more opportunities to create value for our customers, such as engineering plastics, specialty chemicals, surfactants, and solar energy.†Li Lei revealed that Saudi Basic Industries has even mastered the technology of MDI and TDI and will soon enter the polyurethane field.
Before this, the production of global MDI was monopolized by a few companies such as BASF, Bayer, and Yantai Wanhua (13.40, 0.00, 0.00%).
Li Lei said that Saudi Basic Industries Corporation is full of confidence in the future demand for polyurethanes. Building materials, household appliances, and automobiles will all drive polyurethane demand. The company also plans to invest in polyurethane projects in China, and is willing to continue cooperation with partners.
As one of the two largest methanol producers in the world, Saudi Basic Industries' layout in methanol has also caught the eye of the industry. In this regard, Li Lei said yesterday that he was studying the technical route of domestic coal to methanol to olefins, and cooperated with Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"But we don't sell much methanol to China, because China itself is the world's largest methanol producer." Li Lei said.
Ethylene glycol is another competitive product of Saudi Basic Industries, and it has also attracted attention due to the breakthrough in domestic coal-based glycol technology. In this regard, Li Lei said that the company is the world's largest ethylene glycol production company, the product is still in short supply. Sinopec (Tianjin) petrochemical project, which is a joint venture with Sinopec, also has ethylene glycol capacity. Future capacity may increase further with project expansion.
"As far as coal-based ethylene glycol is still in its early stages, there is still a process of cost reduction. Natural gas as raw material is still the most competitive route at present," said Li Lei.
Speaking of the impact of international oil prices on the petrochemical market this year, he said that the current international oil prices are not completely determined by supply and demand. Their rises and falls have exceeded the economic scope and are affected by factors such as geopolitics and speculation. "These are ours. Uncontrollable. For the company, the fluctuations in the market are ups and downs, and short-term fluctuations will have an impact on products that use petroleum and naphtha as raw materials, but this is only part of our products."
“We are still very optimistic about the downstream demand. With the improvement of China’s economic development and people’s lives, the demand for automobiles, housing, communications, medical care, etc. has grown rapidly. Therefore, we do not care much about the short-term fluctuations in oil prices.†Li Lei said.
When asked if it would acquire in China, he said that in the past 30 years, the development of Saudi Basic Industries from the initial five employees to the current super-large petrochemical companies has largely depended on effective and selective. The acquisition and merger, so the future will still pay close attention to this opportunity.
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation is a leader in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene, advanced thermoplastics, ethylene glycol, methanol and fertilizers. The Saudi Arabian government owns 70% of the company's shares.
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