Saudi private-sector petchems firm Advanced has selected Swiss specialty chemicals firm Clariant, in which Saudi state giant Sabic is the leading shareholder, to provide proprietary catalysts for an 843,000 t/y propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant to be built at Jubail on the Gulf coast. Clariant’s Catofin catalysts are used in the Catofin PDH technology developed by US process technology firm Lummus Technology, recently taken over by US contractor McDermott, which was last week selected by Advanced for the PDH unit in a $1.8bn complex producing 800,000 t/y of polypropylene end-product (MEES, 22 May).
State-led Sabic owns 31.5% of Clariant, having recently increased its share from 24.99% as “part of Sabic’s growth strategy in specialties, to achieve a leadership position among global peers.” Sabic paid $2.5bn for its original Clariant stake in September 2018, but the following year wrote down $400mn on the deal. Sabic and Clariant had earlier called a temporary halt to talks about merging their specialties business, citing “unfavourable market conditions” (MEES, 1 November 2019). (CONTINUED - 162 WORDS)