Abu Dhabi: Borouge's $70 million (Dh257 million) innovation centre in Abu Dhabi, which is due to be ready this year, will develop new prototypes of plastics for the growing pipe and packaging market, a spokesperson for the Abu Dhabi plastic-making company said yesterday.
"These will then be manufactured as finished products at the manufacturing centre in Abu Dhabi and the bulk of the products will be exported," the Borouge spokesman told Gulf News by telephone.
Borouge said in a statement it was making rapid progress with its Borouge 3 expansion project in Abu Dhabi which is expected to advance its annual output to 4.5 million tonnes by mid-2014. This would make the firm the largest integrated polyolefins complex in the world.
Borouge recently tripled the annual production capacity of its facility in Ruwais to two million tonnes.
In addition to a third polyethylene unit at the plant, the new facilities at Borouge's plant in Abu Dhabi will include two new polypropylene units that will each bring 400,000 tonnes per year of polypropylene production, marking Abu Dhabi's entry into the market of innovative polypropylene plastics solutions for the first time.
The expanded olefins plant includes an ethane cracker with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of ethylene per year, making it the largest in the world, and an olefins conversion unit, also the largest of its kind in the world.
"These significant investments during 2010 have enhanced Borouge's capabilities to meet the growing needs of the infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging markets of the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Indian sub-continent and Africa," a Borouge spokesman said.
During the year, Borouge said it also invested in a manufacturing plant in Shanghai and established logistics hubs in Singapore, Shanghai and Guangzhou to provide optimum service levels to its Asian customers.
Joint venture
"The fast-growing polyolefins market offers Borouge and its customers remarkable opportunities over the next 10 years and beyond," the statement quoted Borouge's Senior Vice President for the Middle East Hussain Sultan Lootah as saying.
The innovation centre will be designed to work with the European innovation centres of Borealis plus local and international educational institutions such as the Petroleum Institute of Abu Dhabi, to develop the competence of polymer science in the UAE, a Borouge spokesman said.
Borouge is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Austria-based Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions.
