BP Begins Construction Of Chinese PTA Plant

14-Nov-2000

BP, its partners and government officials today celebrated the start of construction at the company’s first purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in China with a groundbreaking ceremony in Zhuhai, Guandong Province. Construction of the 350,000 tonne per year PTA facility is scheduled for completion in December of 2002. “This project represents BP’s largest single capital investment in China to date and underlines our continuing belief as a global company in international investment and the future of the Chinese economy”, said BP Managing Director Dr. Chris Gibson-Smith at the Zhuhai ceremony. “The plant will use our latest generation of proprietary PTA technology and operate to the highest environmental, ethical and safety standards.” The PTA complex will be owned and operated by the Amoco Zhuhai Chemical Company, a three-year-old joint venture between BP (80%), the Fuhua Group (15%) and the China National Chemical Fibre Company (5%). According to Zhuhai general manager Linda Shum, the Zhuhai plant will be profitable from “day one” of operation. “The PTA market in China is very strong, led by robust growth in polyester fibers, demand is expected to grow at higher than 8 per cent per annum,” Shum said. “Demand is near four million tonnes per year, yet production capacity in only two million tonnes. The Zuhai plant will use BP’s latest generation of propriety PTA technology. BP is also conducting a feasibility study with partner Sinopec for the construction of another world-scale PTA manufacturing facility near Shanghai – the site the company’s planned ethylene and derivatives complex. PTA is the primary and preferred raw material for making polyester fibres, films and container resin. Approximately 90 per cent of the PTA consumed in China is used by the textile industry. BP is the world’s largest producer of PTA as well as its feedstock paraxylene. With wholly-owned PTA plants in North America, Europe and Asia plus several joint venture plants in Asia and South America, BP produces more than 7 million tonnes of PTA a year – about one-third of the world’s total production capacity. Located in southern China, Guandong Province surrounds the autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau and accounts for about 40 per cent of China’s total exports. The region has attracted one-third of all foreign investment in the country. To date BP has invested about $2.5 billion in China, the most by any foreign-owned energy company. New projects worth another $1.5 billion, including the Zhuhai PTA plant, are now at the planning or construction stage.

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