At the end of December 2017, 10 out of 12 new units in Petro Rabigh's (Rabigh / Saudi Arabia; www.petrorabigh.com) petrochemical complex project were successfully launched. A joint venture of Saudi Aramco (Dhahran / Saudi Arabia; www.saudiaramco.com) and Sumitomo Chemical (Tokyo / Japan; www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english), Petro Rabigh announced the news on 7 January 2018. The industrial complex's on-spec production includes LDPE, PMMA, PA 6 and thermoplastic olefins. Both jv partners signed an agreement in 2014 to market the output on an equal basis.

According to Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), monomer capacities at complex 2 are 300,000 t/y of ethylene and 250,000 t/y of propylene (via metathesis), as well as production of cumene, phenol, caprolactam and MMA. The new line for LDPE has a capacity of 160,000 t/y, in addition to 60,000 t/y of polyamide 6 and 30,000 t/y of PMMA. Petro Rabigh says only the aromatic complex (1.35m t/y of PX and 500,000 t/y of benzene) and the new EPDM line (75,000 t/y) are not yet running. These are due to start in the first quarter of 2018.