2014-2015 Exhibitions
Middle Eastern supplier of polyolefin solutions Borouge has seen “massive growth” over the last few years, said Tarmo Raudsepp, Senior Vice-President for Asia South, who was speaking to PRA during the Chinaplas show. In fact, its capacity has grown by a whopping 700% from 2010 (when the start-up of Borouge 2 tripled production capacity to 2 million tonnes/year).
But the company is not putting the brakes just yet and has the following planned expansions this year:-
- Increase of capacity of its petrochemical plant at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi in the UAE, from 2 million tonnes/year to 4.5 million tonnes/year. The Borouge 3 plant will include additional capacity for PP (1.1 million tonnes) and PE (1.1 million tonnes) production as well as the start-up of LDPE (300,000 tonnes) for wire/cable compounds.
- Increase of compounding capacity at its Shanghai plant in China from 50,000 tonnes/year to 90,000 tonnes/year.
- Expansion of Asia North regional sales office in Shanghai; addition of two new warehouses in Ningbo and Tianjin.
- Setting up representative offices in Bangkok, Thailand; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Jakarta, Indonesia; and New Delhi, India.
- Expansion and relocation of the Application Centre in Shanghai to Pudong in late 2014.
“With the increasing investments in production capacity, regional offices, an application centre and warehouses in China, we can efficiently enhance our competitive advantage and service offering in the local market,” said Raudsepp.
He also explained that China is a strong market and thus, the compounding investment is justified, unlike the fragmented markets in the rest of Asia.
The addition of more sales and marketing resources is to improve “logistical support”, he said. “We intend to sell to customers directly to have a better dialogue and to find out what materials they require to improve their processes/end products.”
Meanwhile, Borouge, which is a joint venture of Middle East-based oil/gas company ADNOC and Austrian chemicals supplier Borealis, enjoys the best of both companies.
“It is a powerful combination of not only technology but resources too. We are blessed to have long term supply of feedstock from ADNOC and are able to rely on technological support from Borealis, such as the Borstar bimodal process technology for PP and Borlink platform for power cable compounds,” he added.
Raudsepp also explained that the new Innovation Centre in Abu Dhabi is working together with the European innovation centres of Borealis to develop new products for Asia.
“We will be looking at adopting materials that are successful in Europe to Asia. The application centre gives us the opportunity to transfer technology and to make more localised material.”
At this year’s Chinaplas, Borouge debuted PP solutions including new grades of BorECO for pipes, cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable insulation for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables, Daplen and Fibremod for automotive components production, BorPure for the plastic’s caps and closures market, and the greenhouse films solution- Borstar.
“Our vision is to create and sell products that add value and differentiate, especially for niche market applications, and not to compete with local producers of commodity resins,” explained Raudsepp.
When asked if new products will be expected from Borouge based on Borealis’s EUR100 million catalyst plant in Linz, Austria, launched last year, he replied, “Of course we are looking at the possibility of growth. But we have to take a step-by-step approach. We are just starting up our plants and cannot do many modifications as yet.”
(PRA)
