The 1st agreement will see Ineos acquire a 50% stake in Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company Limited, a subsidiary of state-backed Sinopec.
Currently, SECCO has a production capacity of 4.2 million tonnes of petrochemicals in the 200-hectare facility, located inside the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park.
There it produces ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, styrene, polystyrene, acrylonitrile, butadiene, benzene and toluene.
2ndly, Ineos has agreed to establish a new 50:50 joint venture with SINOPEC to build a production capacity of up to 1.2 million tonnes of ABS in order to meet China’s rapidly growing demand.
The upcoming 600,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant in Ningbo also falls under this deal.
The plant is currently under construction and is set to begin operations by the end of 2023.
The 2 firms also plan to work together on 2 more 300,000 tpy ABS plants, which will also be built by the joint venture based on Ineos’ Terluran ABS technology.
Another of these plants will be built in Tianjin and the location of the 3rd unit is yet to be decided.
Finally, the 2 companies will also establish a 50:50 joint venture to build a new 500,000 tpy high density poly ethylene (HDPE) plant in Tianjin.
In addition to the Tianjin plant Ineos and Sinopec will build at least 2 additional HDPE plants of the same capacity in the future to produce Ineos pipe grade under license.
The Tianjin plant is expected to be onstream by the end of 2023.
Ineos already has joint ventures in operation with Sinopec following the acquisition of BP’s acetyls and aromatics business in January 2021.
CEO of Ineos Jim Ratcliffe said:
- These agreements significantly reshape Ineos’ petrochemical production and technology in China
- We are pleased to make these major investments with Sinopec in areas that provide the best growth opportunities for both companies
Author: Ryan Duff
