Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has announced plans to manufacture a new range of advanced engineering material for downstream industries, for the first time in Saudi Arabia.

The materials offer high-performance solutions for metal and glass replacements that could lead to weight savings and higher added value and respond to broader sustainability needs, said Sabic officials.

The new products, commonly known by their chemical acronyms, POM and PMMA, were introduced to the regional plastic industry at the Downstream Symposium hosted by Sabic at the state-of-the-art Sabic Plastics Application Development Center (SPADC) in Riyadh last week.

Polyoxymethylene (POM) will be manufactured in Jubail by Sabic’s manufacturing affiliate, National Methanol Company (Ibn Sina), an existing joint venture with CTE, which is a company owned by Celanese Corporation and Duke Energy. Production and marketing of POM is expected to begin in 2016.

Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA) will be produced in Jubail by the Saudi Methacrylates Company, a newly-established 50-50 joint venture company between Sabic and Mitsubishi Rayon Company (MRC), which will also produce Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) monomer.  Production of PMMA is expected to begin in 2017.

Mohamed Al-Mady, Sabic vice chairman and CEO, said: "Our POM and PMMA products will offer high-value solutions and help in diversifying the materials used in Saudi Arabia’s downstream industries. As we build on our foundation of responsibly manufacturing products that offer sustainable solutions, we continue to make strategic investments to develop products and applications that focus on customers looking for sustainability improvements in their products, particularly light-weighting and material efficiency.”

POM is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic material that has the potential to replace metal in many applications due to its high strength and ease of machining. PMMA is a transparent thermoplastic with excellent clarity and scratch-resistance that could be used, among many other uses, as a break-resistant alternative to glass.

POM has several automotive applications such as safety-belt systems and window lift mechanisms. In building and construction, its applications include bathroom parts, such as shower heads and pipe couplings. PMMA also has a range of automotive and building and construction applications.

Explaining some of the key benefits of the new products, Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, Sabic executive vice president, Performance Chemicals, said they are safe, durable, light in weight, strong and impact-resistant.

“They serve a number of applications and industries, helping customers tackle some of the industry’s most pressing challenges. By introducing these products at this symposium well in advance of their launch, we hope to encourage investors to enter the industry and diversify the local and regional market with regard to POM and PMMA applications,” he said.

Besides Al-Fageeh, a number of internationally-known subject matter experts representing Sabic  joint-venture partners addressed the symposium, including David M Postolowski of Celanese Corporation, Marutani Takao and Yamane Yoshinori of Mitsubishi Rayon Company, and Carl Philip Pöpel of KraussMaffei Group, along with several local Sabic experts.  - TradeArabia News Service