Saudi Tasnee says petchem recovery to continue
RIYADH (Reuters) - The worst of the financial crisis is over and the recovery of the petrochemical industry should continue next year, the chief executive of Saudi industrial group Tasnee (2060.SE) said on Tuesday.
"What we have seen so far gives us a certain level of optimism that the worst is over and the recovery is going on not only in China and India, which may have seen slower economic growth," Moayyed al-Qurtas told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Riyadh.
Qurtas said there are also some encouraging signs from some developed countries such as the United States, France and Germany.
"The worst was the fourth quarter of 2008... You can see that things are moving in the right direction... We are optimistic or we hope that this trend is to continue in 2010," he said.
Tasnee has completed major expansions in the third quarter of this year which include raising its polypropylene capacity to 720,000 tonnes per year (tpy) from 450,000 tpy and the start-up of a new polyethylene plant, Qurtas said.
He added that Tasnee's products were not affected by a recent anti-dumping row between the kingdom and China and India about several products.
In June, China said it had begun an anti-dumping investigation into methanol imported from Saudi Arabia and three other countries to assess whether the material had been sold below production prices.
Saudi media has said India and Saudi Arabia were holding talks to solve dumping accusations of companies in both countries.
Qurtas said a recently launched project with Dow Chemical (DOW.N) to produce acrylic acid is part of plans to diversify more specialised chemicals.
"This project is instrumental in opening the door for many other projects which we are working on now and have not been yet announced," he said. (Additional reporting by Tamara Walid in Doha. Editing by David Brough)
(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine)
