Polypropylene from Saudi Arabian petrochemicals and plastics giant Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com) has been used to make N95 masks locally for the first time.

The Saudi Mais Company (Riyadh; www.maisco.com.sa) is producing the masks – also known as filtering facepiece respirators – in partnership with Demas Factory for Non-Woven Fabrics, having obtained the necessary regulatory approvals from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (Riyadh; www.sfda.gov.sa).

Yousef Al-Benyan, Sabic vice-chairman and CEO, said Saudi-based production of masks was an important step in localising medical products that contribute toward improving public health.

Last September, Sabic launched a hygiene and healthcare unit to further expand its market focus and promote the contribution of petrochemicals to the medical equipment sector, especially after seeing the supply chain disruptions and resulting restrictions on medical product exports due to the pandemic.