Japan's Marubeni Corp. has withdrawn from a joint project to build a polyvinyl chloride plant in Baria-Vung province, 85 km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The remaining partners�Petronas, PetroVietnam, and Tramatsuco�have signed an amended joint-venture agreement and awarded a major contract for the plant.
Under the new contract, PetroVietnam will hold 50% of Phu My Plastics & Chemicals Co. (PMPC), the joint-venture firm formed in 1997 to undertake the project. PetroVietnam will hold 43%, and Tramatsuco, an entity controlled by Baria-Vung Tau province, will hold 7%. Previously, Marubeni controlled 30% of the JV.
PMPC has awarded the $48.6 million engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contract to Samsung Engineering Co. of South Korea. It also appointed Petronas subsidiary OGP Technical Services Sdn. Bhd. the project management consultant for the PVC plant project.
The plant, to be completed in 2002, will have 100,000 tonnes/year of PVC capacity. Vinyl chloride monomer feedstock will come from a VCM plant in Malaysia owned jointly by Petronas and Mitsui VCM (M) Sdn. Bhd.
PVC output will be used to meet domestic demand, displacing imports.