The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and Germany’s Süd-Chemie have singed a joint agreement on the acquisition of the Scientific Design Company from Linde. The two entities will manage the company through a fifty-fifty joint venture.
Under this changed ownership, US-based Scientific Design will remain an independent entity and continue to license its processes, provide engineering services and sell catalysts to its clients worldwide.
Scientific Design’s major fields of business are catalysts and process-technology for use in the production of major chemicals such as ethylene oxide and maleic anhydride. Ethylene oxide and maleic anhydride are among the most important chemical intermediates. Ethylene oxide is an intermediate for ethylene glycol, which is in turn required for the production of antifreeze agents, as used for instance in automobiles, and for the production of polyester fibres and plastics such as polyethyleneterephtalate (PET).
Maleic anhydride is used for the production of the unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) and is a preliminary product for butanediol, which serves in the manufacture of plastics such as polybutyleneterephtalate (PBT). These plastics are most commonly used and most well known due to their widespread application in the beverage industry for the manufacture of recyclable plastic bottles. The global market demand for ethylene oxide amounts to 15 million tons annually and 1.5 million tons for maleic anhydride.
Sabic is the largest petrochemicals company in the Middle East. Based in Riyadh. Founded in 1976, the Saudi Arabian Government owns 70 percent of Sabic shares, with the remaining 30 percent held by private investors in Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
