Abu Dhabi Chemicals Derivatives Company RSC Ltd (TA’ZIZ) announced that Shaheen Chem Holdings Investment LLC (Shaheen), will join the proposed TA’ZIZ and Reliance Industries Limited TA’ZIZ EDC & PVC joint venture, that will construct and operate a world-scale Chlor-Alkali, Ethylene Dichloride (EDC) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) facility, at the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone, in Ruwais.
The TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone is a joint venture between ADNOC and ADQ. With an investment of more than $2 billion (AED7.34 billion), the project will supply local manufacturers, replacing chemicals currently imported, while also exporting to meet growing demand for these chemicals globally. TA’ZIZ will provide new opportunities for local manufacturers, supporting growth of their knowledge and capabilities, catalyzing local industrial development.
Shaheen brings extensive knowledge of the local market and joins the project with a focus on utilizing production for use in local supply chains. The agreement marks the first direct investment by a privately-owned United Arab Emirates (UAE) company in the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone. It also follows the investment agreements between TA’ZIZ and eight UAE-based investors in December 2021, which marked the first domestic Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Abu Dhabi’s downstream and petrochemicals sector.
Khaleefa Yousef Al Mheiri, TA’ZIZ Acting Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are delighted to welcome Shaheen as a strategic partner in TA’ZIZ. This strategic agreement further consolidates TA’ZIZ’s position as the sought-after partner for local and international investment in the UAE’s chemicals industry. The partnership supports our national strategy to drive the growth and diversification of the country’s industrial base, strengthen domestic supply chains and enable the private sector to “Make it in the Emirates”, in line with the leadership’s wise directives.”
The chemicals to be produced by the TA’ZIZ EDC and PVC project have a wide range of industrial applications and will create opportunities for export, as well as providing local industry with a source of critical raw materials manufactured in the UAE for the first time.
Walid Azhari, Managing Director of Shaheen, said: “We are honored to partner with TA’ZIZ and Reliance in this world class industrial plant which will include the largest Chlor Alkali plant in the world. We are looking forward to working with our partners during the development, construction and operation stages of the project. This project will be the cornerstone for many exciting downstream opportunities which will create a whole new industrial cluster in the UAE, in line with the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030”.
Investment in the production of chemicals is a priority for the UAE’s industrial growth strategy, championed by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, which aims to raise the UAE’s industrial sector’s contribution of national GDP to AED300 billion by 2031. Chemicals are an attractive sector given projected demand growth globally and the opportunity local production creates to grow the UAE’s industrial base.
Chlor-Alkali enables the production of caustic soda, crucial to the production of aluminum, and EDC is used in the production of PVC for a wide range of industrial and consumer products including pipes, windows, cables, films and flooring.
TA’ZIZ comprises three zones, the first of which is an Industrial Chemicals Zone that will host chemicals production, with seven world-scale projects already in the design phase. The second is a Light Industrial Zone, which will be home to downstream conversion industries that will convert the outputs of the Chemicals Zone into consumable products. The third is an Industrial Services Zone that will house a variety of companies providing the services required by the TA’ZIZ industrial zones and the wider Ruwais Industrial Complex.
All projects in the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone are subject to customary regulatory approvals.
