Saudi Arabia’s Arabian Industrial Fibre Company’s (Ibn Rushd) has received the final commercial proposals for a new petrochemicals plant at Yanbu in the kingdom.

Seven contractors submitted bids around the 18 September for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the 350,000 tonne a year (t/y) purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit. The unit will be part of a larger petrochemicals complex Ibn Rushd has at Yanbu.

“The bids are now in, but it is too early to call for a frontrunner,” a source close to the project says. “No-one outside of Ibn Rushd knows who the lowest bidder is.”

The new PTA plant will double production at the complex when completed at the end of 2013. The award is expected to be announced in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Bidders for PTA plant:

• CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
• Daelim (South Korea)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (China)
• SK Engineering  & Construction (South Korea)

In August MEED reported that the same engineering companies had submitted bids to Ibn Rushd for the estimated $500m-plus aromatics plant to be built at the same site (MEED 26:8:10). Both projects are part of Ibn Rushd’s plans to increase plastics production at the site.