In a bid to strengthen its foothold in the global bulk and specialty chemicals industry, the South Korea based construction and hydrocarbons giant, Samsung Engineering recently announced that it has bagged a USD 700 million contract to construct a monoethylene glycol manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia. Reportedly, the contract has been awarded by Jubail United Petrochemical Company (JUPC), a prominent subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s largest petrochemical producer and economic entity, Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC).
For the record, Samsung Engineering, over the last decade, has emerged as one of the leading monoethylene glycol manufacturing firms globally, given the fact that the company has built around 16 monoethylene glycol producing plants across various regions of the world including U.S., Thailand, Malaysia, and India. The Seoul-based firm also boasts of having 27 projects to its name in Saudi Arabia, including 22 of them related to SABIC’s subsidiaries.
Meanwhile, speaking on the development, a spokesperson from Samsung Engineering was quoted stating that the company keenly looks forward to set-up a state-of-the-art facility for Saudi Arabia to ensure best service delivery to the nation. The statement further noted that armed with JUPC’s trust and its proven track record of constructing monoethylene glycol producing plants in the nation, the firm anticipates working closely with JUPC in the forthcoming years.
As per reliable sources, the latest facility would be built in the Jubail Industrial City situated in the east of Saudi Arabia and is anticipated to be completed by the year 2020. Meanwhile, industry analysts cite that the contract is likely to fortify the presence of Samsung Engineering in the global monoethylene glycol industry, given that the new plant would reportedly produce a massive 700,000 million tons of monoethylene glycol per year.
With Saudi Arabia gearing up to diversify its economy by lowering its dependence on oil, the latest contract of SABIC to target the lucrative monoethylene glycol market would indeed prove to be of immense benefit, cite experts.