Arlanxeo (Maastricht / The Netherlands; www.arlanxeo.com) has signed an agreement with Saudi Aramco Products Trading (Dhahran / Saudi Arabia) to market and sell EPDM rubbers produced at the Petro Rabigh (Rabigh; www.petrorabigh.com) complex in Saudi Arabia. The EPDM grades will be sold worldwide under Arlanxeo’s “Keltan” trademark, with the extension "KSA", representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Supply is planned to start within the first half of 2018. "Keltan KSA will have its own brand identity and positioning supported by a dedicated organisation,” said Jasvinder Kaur, head of Keltan KSA.

The Dutch elastomers producer said the deal extends and further strengthens its position as a global synthetic rubbers supplier.

The EPDM plant in Rabigh is part of the fully-integrated petrochemical complex Petro Rabigh – a joint venture of Saudi Aramco (Dhahran / Saudi Arabia; www.saudiaramco.com) and Sumitomo Chemical (Tokyo / Japan; www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english). Petro Rabigh announced on 7 January, 10 out of 12 new units were successfully launched at the end of December 2017 – but the new EPDM line (75,000 t/y) was not running then (see Plasteurope.com of 10.01.2018).

Last December, Arlanxeo launched a semi-crystalline Keltan grade with a very high Mooney viscosity for demanding applications in the car industry (see Plasteurope.com of 01.02.2018).