Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG, Riyadh / Saudi Arabia; www.siig.com.sa) – one of the shareholders in the 50:50 polyamide joint venture Petrochemical Conversion Company (PCC, Al Jubail / Saudi Arabia; http://saudipcc.com) – has announced that PCC began trial operations at its plant in Al Jubail / Saudi Arabia on 2 February, with output due to be ramped up successively during the course of this year.

Once output rates have reached the nominal nameplate capacity, the jv with Arabian Chevron Phillips (ACP) – a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem, The Woodlands, Texas / USA; www.cpchem.com) – will be able to turn out 50,000 t/y of PA 6.6 as well as 20,000 t/y of PA compounds, Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows. The lines will be the Arab region's first producing PA raw material.