Jinshan Integrated Petrochemical Complex, China

The project is located at Jinshan, which is 80km to the south of Shanghai in north eastern China, a hub of petrochemical development in China. The site has been chosen as the locus of a major new ethylene production site by Sinopec and BP Amoco. The resins plant is an altogether more modest enterprise than its giant $2.5 billion neighbour.

The Jinshan Hydrocarbon Resins Company is a joint venture between Exxon Chemical Eastern Inc. (ECEI), an affiliate of ExxonMobil Chemical Company, and the Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited (SPC). The resins joint venture was set up in the last quarter of 1999. ECEI and SPC will have a 60% and 40% interest in the plant respectively.

HYDROCARBON RESINS TECHNOLOGY

Construction on the project began in the second half of 1998, and the project was finished on time in the second quarter of 2000. The cost of the project is CHY239.8 million ($29 million). The capacity of the new plant is 26,000t/yr. The plant uses ExxonMobil Chemical's proprietary hydrocarbon resins technology, and will market its products under ExxonMobil's Escorez trademark.

The new plant is intended to serve hydrocarbon resin markets in China as well as the rest of Asia-Pacific. Adhesive products made of hydrocarbon resins are used in various industrial and consumer goods, such as road markings, tyres, adhesive tapes, corrugated boxes and packaging material. The strong growth of the Chinese economy will create similarly strong demand for these product areas. As the regional market recovers, it may be expected that the demand in other Asian countries will increase by rates as rapid as their general economic growth.

JINSHAN PARTNERS

The Shanghai Petrochemical Company runs a refinery in its complex at Jinshanwei producing 5.3 million tonnes per year, where it also has two ethylene plants and associated units. Future growth in oil, gas and petrochemicals is expected to concentrate around this location.

ExxonMobil is the product of a merger between the two major oil and gas and petrochemicals companies.

EXXONMOBIL INVESTMENT

In addition to the Jinshan project, Exxon Chemical and Jinzhou Petrochemical signed a 50/50 joint-venture agreement to renovate Jinzhou's existing lubricants additives installations in China in the last half of 1998. The two companies produce lubricant additives for the world market. Construction work on the old installations began in 1998, and the units' output is largely sold in China under Exxon's Paramins brand name. In 1995 the partners formed another joint venture (Jinzhou Jinex Lubricant Additive) on the same site that makes additives, such as detergent inhibitors and viscosity improvers.

Thus ExxonMobil is pushing forward with a number of small projects which get far less publicity than its ethylene production joint venture in Fujian. The chemicals conglomerate has preserved its branding in two of the joint ventures.