Page 43 - Plastics News October 2016
P. 43
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Petronas, Saudi Aramco seek Turkey invests $23 million in
US$7.5 bln loan for Johor Plant R&D center to boost plastics
sector
Petronas and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company Saudi
Aramco are negotiating for a US$7.5 billion (RM30 billion) Turkey is spending 70 million Turkish lira ($23.3
syndicated loan to finance a proposed refinery and million) to
petrochemical complex in Johor. According to reports set up a plastics
from The Straits Times bankers as saying the 50-50 joint industry research
venture between the two international oil giants will be and development
a straightforward loan ahead of a larger bond issue later center to raise the
to finance the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated competitiveness of
Development Project (Rapid), in the Pengerang industrial its plastics products
zone in Johor. “The bridging loan is being guaranteed manufacturing and
individually by Petronas and (Saudi) Aramco, and once act as a check against
imports of “poor
the project is completed, a bond will be issued by the quality” plastics.
joint-venture concern,” it quoted an unnamed Malaysian
bank chief executive saying. Rapid is expected to come The announcement
onstream sometime in 2019. The report also said that from Turkey’s Pagev plastics industry trade association
Petronas declined to comment on the project’s fund said the project, done in connection with the country’s
raising, but told The Straits Times that it has “attracted Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, would take
potential strategic and technology partners to the Rapid four years to complete. The Istanbul-based association
project and continues to evaluate partnership and funding said the center, called the Pagev Plastics Center
options”. of Excellence, “will encourage scientific research
The paper reported, however, that investment analysts with traceable objectives and a high potential for
and bankers following Petronas were “less certain” about commercialization in order to accelerate the growth of
Petronas’s commitment to the just-approved RM112.9 the plastics industry.” The association is looking forward
billion (US$27.25 billion) Pacific NorthWest LNG liquefied to increase the trade for Plastics and would take all the
natural gas (LNG) project in British Columbia, Canada neccessary steps to ensure the growth of the industry.
which came during a gas price slump. The company had As of now there is trade deficit of the plastics Industry
previously said net profit for the second quarter ended as compared to its counter parts.
June dropped 86 per cent from the same period a year
earlier, and added that it would cut spending by up to “Turkey stands below the average in terms of export of
RM49.7 billion (US$12 billion) over the next four years. plastic products with added value in the world,” Pagev
said. The association said Turkey’s plastics products
manufacturing industry is the second-largest in Europe,
behind Germany, but adds relatively little value in its
plastics processing industry compared other countries.
Turkey’s plastics product industry has a unit value of
its $2.8 per kilogram for its exports of finished plastics
goods, well below the average of $5.3 per kilogram for
the top 10 exporting countries, Pagev said.
The industry wants to raise that to $4 per kilo, said
Yavuz Eroglu, chairman of Pagev, the Turkish Plastics
Industry Foundation.
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