Zamil Group and Chemtura Corporation of the US are making significant progress in implementing the joint venture to build a world-scale metal alkyls manufacturing facility in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, a statement said. With the front-end engineering and design already finalized, the next steps, including the financing and contracting the detailed engineering and construction of the joint venture facility, are being progressively pursued to comply with the requirements of the project execution schedule. The facility is planned to be operational in 2012 and is designed to satisfy growing regional demand for different organometallics that serve as specialty catalyst components for a variety of processes, including polyethylene and polypropylene. The Zamil-Chemtura joint venture would license Chemtura Organometallics' proprietary technology and serve as the sales and marketing arm for Chemtura Organometallics in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries. Chemtura Organometallics would be responsible for sales of the joint venture's aluminum alkyl products outside the Middle East and would provide technical service, product application knowledge and market development expertise. “We are pleased with the steady progress being made on the Zamil-Chemtura joint venture that falls within our strategy of investing in higher value-added chemicals, especially those that have both a strategic market in Saudi Arabia and the region, and depend on locally produced chemicals,” said Fahad Al Zamil, president of Zamil Group, Jubail Operations. “We are extremely pleased about the progress that we are making to satisfy the strategic need to have a regional supply platform and a local competence team for these critical catalyst components,” added Craig Rogerson, chief executive and chairman of Chemtura Corporation. Zamil Group and Chemtura have been successful partners since 2000 in an antioxidants manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia that produces antioxidant stabilizers for the regional polyolefin industry. Chemtura recently announced it would further grow its global antioxidant business with an additional expansion of its capacity at this facility. Zamil Group Holding has announced two new joint ventures and plans for a metal alkyls manufacturing facility. A memorandum of understanding was signed with Huntsman Corporation, a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals, to explore the feasibility of constructing and operating a morpholine and diglycolamine agent amines plant. The facility would be located in Jubail Industrial City and operated on a 50:50 basis using Huntsman technology. A second joint venture, worth $500,000 (SR2 million), was announced by Zamil Industrial Investment Company, a subsidiary of Zamil Group Holding, with U.S.-based Petro-Chem Development Company to produce fired heater products. Initially, the process furnaces will be manufactured at the Zamil Steel factory in Dammam.
