Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) has begun construction of its fifth polypropylene unit within  the company's plant in the Ruwais region of the UAE capital.

Once the project comes on stream in the third quarter of 2021, it will boast a production capacity of 480,000 tonnes per year, said a statement from Borouge, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Borealis of Austria.

This new plant will help boost its polypropylene capacity by more than 25 per cent to 2.24 million tonnes per year and unlock new opportunities to boost the local economy, it added.

The main EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor of the project is Italy-based Maire Tecnimont Group, a leading player in the oil, gas, petrochemical, and chemical sectors.

The top European engineering group has extensive experience of working with Borouge, going back to the first Borouge polyolefin complex (Borouge 1) which was completed in 2001.

It has also carried out two additional expansion projects, Borouge 2 and Borouge 3, the statement added.

The Italian group won the contract for the PP5 unit in July, said a statement from Borouge.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the new unit was attended by several high-ranking officials from Adnoc, Borealis, Maire Tecnimont Group and Borouge.

Speaking at the ceremony, Borouge CEO Ahmed Omar Abdulla said: "The start of construction of our new PP5 unit, in Ruwais, opens the door to a new era of growth and development at Borouge and underlines our leading position as a reliable provider of innovative petrochemicals and plastics solutions."

"PP5 will make a significant contribution to the delivery of our shareholders’ ambitious strategy," he stated.

"As a new milestone on Borouge’s growth strategy, the PP5 unit also supports our in-country value (ICV), programme which encourages the use of local goods, services, manufacturing facilities and the employment of Emiratis," remarked Abdulla.

"It will also have a positive impact on logistics, ports and exporting. In addition, it provides new opportunities for potential customers in the UAE to create products based on our ‘Made in the UAE’ polypropylene solutions," he added.

Maire Tecnimont Group CEO Pierroberto Folgiero said: "We are proud to be part of this project and are very excited to continue contributing to the achievement of Abu Dhabi’s downstream and petrochemicals development and to further strengthen a mutually beneficial partnership with a prestigious client such as Borouge."

The Austrian group Borealis said that enabled by its proprietary Borstar technology, the new PP5 plant will become the 10th Borstar unit in Ruwais.

Contributing to growing Borouge’s total polymers production capacity by almost 11 per cent to reach five million tonnes per year, the PP5 unit is an important step towards meeting the increasing requirements of customers across the world, especially in the field of household packaging, including food containers and films which are light, stiff and transparent and can be used, re-used and recycled, it added.-TradeArabia News Service