Following Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Polymer’s exit from the joint venture for a proposed polypropylene (PP) manufacturing complex, Bayegan has confirmed its commitment to building the plant.
Burcu Olcay, senior executive, sourcing of the Bayegan group speaking exclusively to Refining and Petrochemicals Middle East said that the MOU for the PP investment in Turkey, signed between Advanced Petrochemicals Company and Bayegan Group on May 5th. 2012 had expired on Dec 31st.
However, she said Bayegan Group has decided to continue this project, where all the operations are up and running as scheduled and planned.
The plant, which will have a PP capacity of 500.000 MT/year, is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2016.
So when asked why Advanced Polymers pulled out of the deal, Olcay said, “Because we could not finish the JV Study, we (Advanced and Bayegan) decided to declare that this MOU is terminated. At Bayegan we will continue with EIA and soil report and are actively looking for a new partner that can add value to this project.”
She also said that the company is working very hard to make the project happen. “Our government is also extremely supportive of this project, which will decrease import of PP by more than 20% in Turkey,” Oclay added.
Turkey is the second largest PP importer in the world, shipping in about 1.5 million m.t./year of the polymer. Petkim (Aliaga, Turkey) is the country’s only PP producer with a plant designed for 140,000 m.t./year. Consumption of PP in Turkey is expected to rise to 2 million m.t./year before 2015. This will be Bayegan’s first manufacturing facility.
