Petrochemicals - The Business Year

Firms across the industry are consolidating and rationalizing with great speed, ensuring not only increased production levels at home but increasing market share abroad.

Mutlaq H. Al-Morished

CEO, Tasnee

We wanted to make the world’s largest TiO2 company. We used to be number two or three in the world, before becoming a quarter owner of a major company. The combination of Tronox and the TiO2 section of Cristal led to what we might now call a match made in heaven. The two companies complement each other. We are working in many countries, such as the US, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and China, in addition to Saudi Arabia. However, we differ from the rest because we have mines in Australia, South Africa, and Brazil and own three slagger plants, one in Jazan in Saudi Arabia and two in South Africa. We have TiO2 plants in eight countries, which makes us fully integrated and the largest and most efficient because we use the latest technology with chloride technology. Furthermore, the cash we have on hand will maximize our investment abilities and allow the company to concentrate on profitable future business ventures.

AhmAd Al-Ohali

CEO, Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem)

Since Saudi International Petrochemical Company’s (Sipchem) inception as a private company in 1999, we have been a growth-focused company capitalizing on the availability and competitiveness of feedstock and global market conditions. Initially we focused on key products, the first of which was methanol. This commodity is an excellent product and had a good market. The second pillar of our strategy was to introduce new products in Saudi Arabia and the region. Other than methanol, all of Sipchem’s products are unique in the Middle East. We wanted to bring in new technologies and innovations, as well as build new capabilities in the region rather than just being another competitor in the market. Our board and management has been focused since day one on growth in distinctive and unique products and on having a global presence. From our inception until now we average one major plant project every 18 months, which is fast growth for our industry.

Saleh M. Bahamdan

Executive President, Saleh M. Bahamdan

We exceeded our capacity for the first time last year with high-quality polypropylene, increasing output from 450,000 to 503,000 tons in 2016. That was accomplished after we made improvements to our manufacturing facilities. We have also managed to secure more propylene apart from what we produce at our plant. Overall, we had a positive outlook for 2016 because of the work we did solving our problems with cooling systems, fixing issues with ruptures and leakages of cooling GRP pipes, and changing to above-ground carbon-steel pipes for better observation and monitoring. These pipes run for almost 16km underground and are all different sizes, and when they are underground it is difficult to accurately assess their condition. Thus, we also put many of the pipes aboveground. In 2016, we truly overhauled our cooling systems and affected a major turnaround in our plants. Additionally, we developed and implemented a new organizational structure. In 2015, we transformed the organization into having three pillars: corporate, manufacturing, and shared services.