China has agreed to invest about 26.7 billion yuan in building a comprehensive petrochemical base in the Aktebu-Pennsk region of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
The Chinese company is Tianjin Bohai Company, a unit of Tianjin Bohai Chemical Group. Representatives of the company recently signed a project cooperation agreement with local officials from Kazakhstan in Beijing.
The project plan is divided into two phases, the first phase can be used to produce methanol as raw material after the completion of the second phase will build an annual capacity of 300,000 tons of ethylene plant, and the other two with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons Polyethylene and polypropylene plant.
The Kazakh side is expecting that the project will provide 3,000 new jobs after the project is completed in 2021. Target markets for petrochemical products are China and Kazakhstan, but also supply neighboring countries.
Two years ago, LG Chem of South Korea canceled its long-term plan to invest 800,000 tons of PE base in Kazakhstan in the large-scale Central Asia project that China took over from other foreign investors before. LG Chem is LG A subsidiary of the group, withdrew from the joint venture in Ataturk, claiming that investment costs have risen too fast as oil prices have been falling all the way.
LG Group said in early 2016 that it will shift its investment to 'more promising' commercial areas.
The industry generally believes that the Aktuellesbosch project is related to China's development strategy of the Belt and Road initiative.