ExxonMobil (Houston, Texas / USA; www.exxonmobil.com) has completed the acquisition of Jurong Aromatics' (JAC, Jurong / Singapore; www.jurongaromatics.com) aromatics complex on Jurong Island. An agreement had been signed in May (see Plasteurope.com of 18.05.2017).

Jurong Aromatics' complex was opened in September 2014, and has capacities of 800,000 t/y of paraxylene (PX), 400,000 t/y of benzene and 200,000 t/y of orthoxylene (OX), according to Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe ​database (www.polyglobe.net). The plant had to be shut down in December 2014 following technical problems. In September 2015, the company was under receivership because of debt problems. Its recommissioning was reported on in 2016 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.07.2016).

ExxonMobil Chemical Asia Pacific already operates the largest integrated petrochemical complex in Jurong, with two large steam crackers and capacities of nearly 3m t/y of polyolefins, 690,000 t/y of benzene and 530,000 t/y of PX. Overall, the group's aromatics capacity at its Singapore site is increasing to more than 3.5m t/y, including 1.8m t/y of PX. According to Polyglobe, ExxonMobil remains the fourth-largest PX producer in the world.

At the end of 2017, ExxonMobil will also commission plants for high-performance adhesives with total capacities of 230,000 t/y. The company expects worldwide demand for chemical products to grow by 45% over the next decade. Three-quarters of this growth in demand is expected to be in the Asia-Pacific region.