Sinopec and Lyondell to Jointly Invest $576 Million to Build a POSM Project

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). China Petroleum Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and Lyondell Chemical Company (Houston, Texas) will jointly invest $576 million to build an ethylene epoxypropane/styrene (POSM) chemical factory in Ningbo, China.

The unveiling ceremony for Ningbo ZRCC & Lyondell Chemical Company Limited was held at the People’s Great Hall in Beijing on April 18, 2007. Zhang Jianhua, Vice President of Sinopec and Dan F. Smith, President and CEO of Lyondell, and Yu Hongyi, Vice Major of Ningbo Municipal Government presented the ceremony and jointly unveiled the new joint venture, which marks the beginning of the implementing stage of the Sino-America Joint Venture POSM project of the ZRCC ethylene project.

Ningbo ZRCC & Lyondell is jointly established by Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company Limited (ZRCC) and Lyondell China Holding Company Limited. Total investment of the project will be about $576 million, annual production output 285,000 tons of epoxypropane and 620,000 tons of styrene, which is the largest single set of chemical production devices in joint ventures by Sinopec and the largest epoxypropane/styrene production device in the world at present. The project is expected to be commissioned at the end of 2009 and the annual sales income is expected to over $1.29 billon.

The main objective of the project is to optimize the product structure in the ethylene project of ZRCC through the introduction of advanced POSM know-how from Lyondell, satisfy the demand on epoxypropane and styrene products in China, and boom the local economic development. This project is the first cooperation between Sinopec and Lyondell, and also the first productive investment of Lyondell in China. Both parties expressed that they will enhance cooperation by taking opportunity from the project, improve the competitive force of the project to achieve the best performance and contribute actively for the common benefits of both parties and for the development of petrochemical industry in China.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.