US chemicals producer Celanese (Dallas, Texas; www.celanese.com) and Sabic (Riyadh / Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) will lay the foundation stone for a new 50,000 t/y POM production plant in Saudi Arabia later this year. The plant will be built by National Methanol (Ibn Sinta), a joint venture between Sabic (50%), Celanese (25%) and Duke Energy (25%). Ibn Sinta currently produces both methanol and MTBE and aims to expand its portfolio. Once the works are completed, Celanese intends to increase its share in the jv to 32.5%, at the expense of Duke Energy.

While it remains unclear when exactly the new facility will begin operations, in May last year Sabic announced that it intends to bring on stream a new POM facility by mid-2013 – see Plasteurope.com of 19.05.2009.