Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has signed a construction contract to build a new plastics application development centre at the Riyadh Techno Valley research complex inside the King Saud University (KSU) campus.

The new Sabic Plastics Application Development Center (SPADC), to be built by El Seif Engineering Contracting Company, will comprise an area of some 80,000 square metres, including about 43,000 square metres of building space.

It is also part of Sabic’s 2020 strategy, which emphasises the importance of scientific research to serve industries and the process of innovation, and for the creation of new industries.

Mohamed Al-Mady, Sabic vice chairman and CEO said that this centre will support the continued expansion of Sabic’s new product portfolio, especially in the areas of packaging, automotive materials and compounding. He noted that the new research facility will support the growth of downstream industries.

The centre will collaborate with customers in developing new plastic applications and provide technical support to Sabic’s local and international customers.

Al-Mady said that the centre will be equipped with more than 300 state-of-the-art items of special research equipment to be operated by more than 150 expert researchers. It will serve as a pilot project to help build Saudi Arabia’s knowledge economy and play an active role in the transfer of technology to the kingdom by building relations between university scientists and end-manufacturers of the plastics industries.

Dr Abdulrahman Al-Ubaid, executive vice president, Technology and Innovation at Sabic, said that the centre will be part of Sabic’s Global Technology Center network and will work closely with other company-owned and operated centers in Pittsfield in the United States, Bergen op Zoom and Geleen in the Netherlands, Bangalore, Shanghai, Seoul, and Moka in Japan.

The centre will also house the current Polymer Technical Support Center now located in Riyadh II Industrial City and will also act as a technical support hub and training centre for Sabic’s customers worldwide.
 
This world-class centre is the largest of its kind in the Middle East. It will be a Leed-certified building that complies with accepted benchmarks for the design and operation of high-performance green buildings.

The centre’s design will also become a local landmark, standing almost 60 metres high to provide graphic representation of Sabic as one of the world’s leading petrochemical companies and the largest in the Middle East.

The centre is expected to be operational by the beginning of the third quarter of 2012.-TradeArabia News Service