Wiesbaden, 21 July 2005 - The technology group Linde is teaming up with Samsung Engineering Co. (South Korea) to establish an ethylene plant in Al-Jubail (Saudi Arabia). The contract was signed yesterday in the capital, Riyadh. The project has been commissioned by a consortium of Saudi petrochemical companies led by Tasnee Petrochemicals. This will be the first time that private companies invest in an ethylene plant in Saudi Arabia.
The order value of the entire project is equivalent to approximately 1 billion euros, of which 300 million euros are destined for Linde.
The plant will have an annual production capacity of 1 million tons of ethylene and 300,000 tons of propylene, and is scheduled to commence operations in the second half of 2008. Ethylene and propylene are key raw materials for the plastics industry.
As leader of the consortium and provider of the technology, Linde's responsibilities include the basic engineering and the procurement of key equipments including the furnace section. Samsung will mainly provide detailed engineering and construction services.
"This project represents a milestone for us," explained Dr. Aldo Belloni, member of the Executive Board of Linde AG and responsible for the business segment Gas and Engineering. "It is the first ethylene plant to be built by Linde in Saudi Arabia, and furthermore, it is the first ethylene plant to be awarded by a private consortium in this country. With this, as well as previous orders, we have considerably strengthened our market position in the growth region of the Persian Gulf and reaffirmed our position as the leading ethylene technology contractor worldwide."
Linde is an international technology group with more than 41,500 employees. It boasts a market lead in both of its business segments: Gas and Engineering and Material Handling, with combined sales of roughly 9 billion euros in fiscal year 2004.]