Local/European joint venture Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) has awarded a $169m contract to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction to build a specialist plastics plant at its petrochemical plant in Ruwais.

MEED previously reported that Hyundai was the frontrunner for the deal after submitting the lowest priced bid on 17 January. Four other firms also bid for the scheme; the US’ Fluor, UK-based Petrofac along with the US’ Jacobs, Italy’s Saipem and Linde of Germany (MEED 23:1:11).

Hyundai will now build a cross-linkable polyethylene (XLPE) unit with a capacity of 80,000 tonnes-a-year (t/y), as well as providing the utilities and offsite facilities for the project.

The deal is the last major contract to be awarded for Borouge’s third phase of expansion which will increase total plastics production by 2.5 million t/y to 4.5 million t/y by 2014. In 2009 and 2010 Borouge awarded $2.6bn-worth of construction contracts including a $1.1bn deal for a new 1.5 million t/y ethane cracker, one of the biggest of its kind in the world, along with $1.25bn for polyolefins plant and $400m low density polyethylene plant.

The Borouge-3 expansion will add XLPE and low-density polyethylene to the company’s product slate, allowing it to supply plastic coating for the specialist wire and cabling market.

Borouge is a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Vienna-based plastics producer, Borealis.