South Korean contractor GS Engineering & Construction Corp is to finance almost half of a $1.3bn petrochemical plant in Adana Province, near Turkey’s border with Syria.
GS announced yesterday (7 October) that it had bought 49% of Ceyhan Petrokimya Endustriyel Yatrim (CPEY), a subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Ronesans Holding.
CPEY is to build a propylene and polypropylene plant with an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes a year, equal to a quarter of the country’s polypropylene.
Polypropylene is a thermoplastic with a wide range of commercial uses, from chairs and pipes to packaging.
The plant is the first project in what Ronesans is billing as a "global petrochemical hub" in Adana. The aim is to reduce Turkey’s $13bn trade deficit in petrochemicals.
Erman Ilıcak, the president of Ronesans, said in a speech at the inaugural meeting of the Ceyhan Petrochemical Industrial Zone: "As the management company of this 14 million sq m project in Ceyhan, we have taken significant responsibilities.
"We will start with the planning of the infrastructure and complete the zoning and parcelling processes in accordance with the purpose of the project. Our second step will be to build the polypropylene plant in partnership with Algeria’s national energy company Sonatrach and GS E&C with an investment of $1.3bn."
He added that Ronesans hoped to attract combined investment of $10bn in the complex.
As well as being an investor, GS will be in charge of engineering, procurement and construction, as well as the front-end engineering design of the scheme. It aims to make the production facilities fully operational in 2024.
Image: Erman Ilıcak (centre) at the inaugural meeting of the Ceyhan Petrochemical Industrial Zone (Ronesans)
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