The Sadara Chemical venture of Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco is progressing on-budget and on-schedule in alignment with Dow’s strategy to enable cost-advantaged growth in fast-growing regions such as Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern and Central Europe, company officials said on Tuesday. 

“Sadara is a cornerstone of Dow’s strategy to leverage our technology and scale as we shift our portfolio toward higher-growth businesses with integration to cost-advantaged feedstocks,” said Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s CEO. 

“Dow’s investment in Sadara represents our focus and commitment to expand participation in attractive markets as we deliver consistent, long-term earnings growth, a key component of our strategy," he added. "Sadara is perfectly positioned to drive this growth in developing markets, where we have strong value drivers.”

Significant progress has been made in starting up key infrastructure and utility systems. Overall constructionof the manufacturing facility is now approximately 94% complete, with 47,000 personnel on site in Jubail Industrial City II, Saudi Arabia.

The commissioning and startup of key utilities infrastructure is underway, and the process for first production units will begin in the second half of the year with initial polyethylene production beginning near the end of 2015. Full site operations remain on track for the end of 2016.

Sadara’s 26 manufacturing assets are scheduled for a sequenced start-up process, beginning with the polyolefins envelope to maximize timing in the ethylene cycle, followed by ethylene oxide/propylene oxide and their derivatives, with the polyurethanes portfolio in the final phase.

Dow says that customer excitement is increasing as businesses actively prepare to market and sell the majority of products produced by Sadara via agreements with the joint venture, to support growth in key markets such as packaging, construction, electronics, furniture and bedding, automotive and transportation.

Progress also continues as Dow works with its customers to attract downstream investments to the advanced manufacturing value park adjacent to Sadara, PlasChem Park, in support of a diversified Saudi economy and job growth in the region.