Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), the world’s largest chemical complex ever built in a single phase, has successfully started up its first production plant, moving on schedule from the construction to the operational phase. 

Sadara’s first product – Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) – was produced in the company’s polyethylene plant using proprietary technology from The Dow Chemical Company, Sadara’s joint venture partner. The plant is the first solution PE plant (PE Train 1) in the Middle East and is designed to produce products for specialty applications such as the manufacture of food grade plastics, industrial and consumer packaging and health and hygiene films. 

Ziad Al Labban, chief executive officer of Sadara, thanked all those involved in making the Sadara dream a reality, saying, “We’ve made history! The successful start-up of the first production facility is a major milestone for Sadara, thanks to the great teamwork between Sadara’s employees and the support from our stakeholders and partners.”

The plant is the first to come on stream among the 26 world-scale manufacturing plants that are being built in the Sadara complex in Jubail Industrial City 2. “We are continuing with our commissioning and start up efforts to bring the remaining 25 units on stream safely, efficiently and effectively,” Al Labban added.  

The new LLDPE plant has annual capacity of 375,000 tonnes, and commercial operations have already begun.

MARKETING

“Our marketing and sales team has been working to raise awareness of Sadara with key potential customers in addition to the work being done by Dow marketing whose experience, track record and network will be invaluable to getting Sadara product to the global markets,” said a Sadara spokesman.

“Sadara will market our products to the Middle East Zone focusing initially on developing and helping the local Saudi market to grow. We get our strength and differentiation from our partners and draw on their experience, so we will leverage Dow’s global marketing experience, extensive customer network and world-class operations to bring our customers the high-value performance plastics and specialty chemicals that will support our customer’s growth.”

Sadara is the world’s largest chemical complex to be built in a single phase. Of its 26 manufacturing facilities, 14 are completely new to the kingdom. 

REMAINING FACILITIES

Over the course of 2016, and following on from the successful launch of PE Train 1 on December 7, 2015, the company will be following a phased approach to commissioning and starting up the remaining 25 manufacturing facilities. Sadara will produce over 3 million tonnes of high value added plastics and chemical products each year once fully operational.

By using best-in-class technologies to crack refinery liquid feedstock, Sadara will enable many industries that either currently do not exist in Saudi Arabia or only exist through imports of raw materials. The adjacent PlasChem Park, a unique collaboration between Sadara and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, will create more value downstream, generating unprecedented investment, innovation, economic growth and thousands of jobs.

Sadara has to date achieved more than 60 per cent Saudisation as construction of the Sadara complex reached 97 per cent completion by November, 2015.