SABIC's Innovative Plastics business, Chongqing Xiyong Micro-electronics Industrial Park, and the Chongqing Economic and Informatization Commission today announced a memorandum of understanding where SABIC would establish an engineering thermoplastics compounding plant in Chongqing, China.
The move supports the Chinese government's 12th Five-Year Plan to expand into the country's western region and reinforces SABIC's commitment to build on its long heritage of serving this important marketplace with innovative and consistently high-quality materials solutions. Chongqing has already established itself as an important industrial hub for global computer, consumer electronics and automotive manufacturers - critical industry segments that SABIC has long served with local materials technology and manufacturing, application development expertise, and design assistance.
This is SABIC's third Chinese engineering thermoplastics investment this year. Earlier announcements include SABIC's memorandum of understanding with Sinopec to collaborate on polycarbonate (PC) production in China. A joint investment between both companies would fund a new PC product plant with an annual capacity of 260 kilo-metric tons. The second announcement was investments in new production lines for SABIC's Lexan PC resins and films in both Shanghai and Nansha in 2012. This comes on the heels of a similar Lexan compounding expansion in Nansha late last year.
"We are in China, for China. In the more than 30 years we've operated in this region, we've cultivated long-term customer relationships that have helped make SABIC the first supplier many of the world's leading OEMs call when designing their customers' innovations," said Charlie Crew, executive vice president, SABIC and head of SABIC's Innovative Plastics business." Our product portfolio includes thousands of resins and compounds with a wide range of performance properties to meet diverse industry and customer requirements. And we are constantly innovating to create new solutions to meet our customers' evolving application needs."
Huang Qifan, Chongqing Mayor, said "This compounding plant in Chongqing Xiyong Micro-electronics Industrial Park is SABIC's third investment in China in 2011 to further enhance the electronics industry. It marks not only the settlement of another Fortune 500 company in Chongqing, but also the strong support from a world-class engineering thermoplastics provider to the industrial chain of Chongqing's laptop industry. Here, on behalf of the Municipal Committee, the Government, and 23 million Chongqing citizens, I'd like to extend my most sincere congratulations and warmest welcome to SABIC for its successful establishment of the Chongqing manufacturing site."
The new compounding plant, which is expected to be online in 2013, will produce several of SABIC's world-class PC, PC blends and other high-quality engineering thermoplastics to provide easier access for southwest China customers. The site will have compounding lines, color development capabilities, and advanced equipment enabling SABIC to work with their customers and partners to create new applications for engineering plastics. Today, SABIC in Asia has 41 offices, 9 manufacturing sites and 5 Technology & Innovation Centers across 12 key Asian countries servicing a portfolio of customers across diverse industries.