Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Company (MRC) have received the final bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for two new petrochemicals plants worth about $500m in Saudi Arabia.

The bidders on the scheme have now been shortlisted to four EPC contractors. They are:

• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
• Technip (France)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The joint venture partners behind the contract are now expected to make an award on the scheme by the second quarter of 2014. The two plants will produce methyl methacrylate (MMA) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and will be built at Jubail in the Eastern Province.

Tecnicas Reunidas was awarded the contract for the front-end engineering and design (feed) contract for the project in January 2012. The capacity for the MMA facility will be 250,000 tonnes a year (t/y), which will make it the largest of its type in the world. The smaller PMMA plant will have a capacity of 40,000 t/y.

MMA and PMMA have several downstream uses, including machinery, electrical components and gears. Both facilities fall in line with Sabic’s move to become a key player in the kingdom’s downstream industries.

Sabic and Lucite International, a subsidiary of MRC, are 50:50 joint venture partners on the project.