Vietnam's first international-scale petrochemical complex, worth nearly US$4bil, will be built in the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province under a joint venture agreement inked in Hanoi yesterday.

The parties in the joint venture include PetroVietnam, Viet Nam National Chemical Corporation (Vinachem) and two subsidiaries of Thai Siam Cement Group (SCG), Vina SCG Chemicals Co Ltd and Thai Plastic and Chemicals Public Co Ltd.

Kan Trakulhoon, president and CEO of SCG, told reporters, yesterday that his subsidiaries held a 71% stake, while Vietnamese firms held the remainder.

The 400ha Greenfield petrochemical complex will be located on Long Son Island, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, adjacent to Vietnam's third oil refinery. The complex will be composed of four main plants.

It will include an international-scale facility producing olefins with an annual designed capacity of 1.65mil tonnes; one producing polyolefins, 1.45mil tonnes; one processing Chlor-Alkali, 280,000 tonnes; and one processing raw materials for Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plastics, 330,000 tonnes of EDC and 400,000 tonnes of VCM.

The complex will also contain necessary infrastructure such as a port, storage facilities and utilities.

Construction and operation of the complex will be divided into two phases, with the PVC-related plants likely to begin operating in 2012 and the other plants in 2013.

"The complex is of great importance to Vietnam as a motive to accelerate development of other related industries like auto-motive, packaging, chemicals, plastics and aluminum," said the president and CEO of PetroVietnam, Tran Ngoc Canh. "The petrochemical industry is still in its infancy in Vietnam."

PetroVietnam and Vinachem are the country's leading petrol and chemical businesses.

At the signing ceremony, Kan emphasised SCG's "long-term commitment to grow with Vietnam as a trusted partner".

SCG is one of Thailand's and Southeast Asia's leading conglomerates, with businesses in distribution and processing chemicals, paper, cement and construction materials. Since beginning doing business in Vietnam in 1990, SCG has been running seven subsidiaries in the country, with 400 labourers and total investment capital of $150mil.

(Source: Viet Nam News)