Singapore Chemicals Plans Major Petrochem and Industrial Park in Vietnam

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The Vietnam government has given the go ahead to Singapore’s SP Chemicals for a major industrial and petrochemical project in Hoa Tam, Phu Yen province. The fist phase of the project will see a $1.5 billion naphtha cracking based petrochemical complex built on a 500-hectare site. The plant is scheduled to be in operation by 2012 and will produce 1.5 million tons per annum (tpa) of aniline, caustic soda, chlorine and other chemicals. The cracker complex will produce 800,000 tpa of ethylene. These products will be supplied to Vietnam’s textile, paper, pharmaceutical, metallurgy and consumer goods industries and will also be exported to China, Japan and South Korea.

The total project plan will be implemented in two stages. Phase 1 of the project will see the development of basic infrastructure and the construction of the naphtha cracker and utility plants, which will be completed by 2014. Phase 2 will see the promotion of the petrochemicals park and the invitation of investments for upstream and downstream petrochemical projects. This phase is scheduled for completion in 2024. No estimate for the investment in phase 2 has been confirmed.

The next immediate step is the identification of potential strategic partners with relevant experience and expertise and the launch of a rigorous feasibility study to assess the suitability of the location and the general investment viability of the project. The project will be the largest of its type in Vietnam. The government has instructed provincial authorities to support SPC in completing formalities to obtain its investment license.

The project forms part of the long-term growth strategy of SP to expand upstream to ensure a reliable supply of raw materials and to cater for future expansion of its core production of chlor-alkali products and related downstream products in China. The Vietnam project signals the company’s bid to become a regional chemical company.

SPC has operated in China for the past 11 years and is the fourth largest ion-membrane chlor-alkali producer and the fifth largest aniline producer in China with a customer base spanning Jiangsu, Zheiang and Shandong provinces. In 2004 it started exporting product to the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan and supplies global and regional chemical majors. In the company’s phase 5 production expansion plan it will increase annual production capacities for caustic soda, chlorine and aniline to 450,000 tpa (from 300,000tpa), 396,000 tpa (from 264,000 tpa) and 135,000 tpa (from 90,000 tpa) respectively. Construction of new facilities began in the first quarter of 2007 and trial production will begin in the first quarter of 2008.

SPC is also looking at the construction of an oil refinery in the central Vietnamese province of Binh Dinh province and a feasibility study for this project is being prepared. The refinery would process crude oil from the Middle East and products would be exported to China and to the local market. At the same time a number of oil and petroleum groups are looking at prospects for the construction of oil refineries in Vietnam.

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