Sabic (Riyadh / Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) has announced plans to build a joint venture ACN and sodium cyanide plant in Saudi Arabia in partnership with Asahi Kasei Chemicals (Tokyo / Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/chemicals/en) and Mitsubishi Corp (Tokyo; www.m-kagaku.co.jp). The plant will have capacity to produce 200,000 t/y of ACN and will be located at the site of one of Sabic’s affiliates in Jubail Industrial City. Hydrogen cyanide produced as a bi-product of the ACN production will be used as a feedstock for the 40,000 t/y sodium cyanide plant.

The companies have signed an agreement to form a jv company, Saudi Japanese Acrylonitrile, also known as Shrouq (meaning "sunrise" in Arabic). Sabic will own 50% of the new company and Asahi Kasei and Mitsubishi will together own the remaining 50%. Saudi Japanese Acrylonitrile will build the ACN and sodium cyanide plant, with sales and distribution to be carried out by the partners.

Mohamed Al-Mady, Sabic vice chairman and CEO, said Saudi Arabia’s National Industrial Clusters Development Program (www.saudiclusters.com) was a key driver for the project. The Saudi government initiated the programme to develop a range of new industries, including automotive. "ACN and sodium cyanide are very important chemicals for downstream diversification into ABS, carbon fibre, acrylic fibre, acrylamide and others which serve various industries such as automotive, construction, water treatment, oil recovery, personal care, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, electronics, gold mining and many others," Al-Mady explained.

Asahi Kasei said the project will make it the world’s largest producer of ACN, giving it a capacity of 1.4m t/y. The company currently has the capacity to produce a total of 750,000 t/y in Japan and Korea, and plans to start up a new plant in Thailand in mid-2011 and another in Korea in January 2013. "Solid demand growth for ACN is forecast to continue worldwide," Asahi Kasei said. The company noted that it had been considering options for building a new ACN plant to meet rising demand in the Middle East and North Africa as well as to supply Asian markets where there are concerns of a shortfall.

The three partners will now begin work on the basic plant design and develop a detailed business plan, and a final decision on capital expenditure will be made in 2012, Asahi Kasei added.