Company History

SABIC
Shades of a better tomorrow
Saudi industrial giant, Sabic, has come a long way and done wonders to the country’s
economy. BIG brings you a profile.

S S
audi Basic Industries Corporation’s
(Sabic) origins date back 32 years
when the Saudi government embarked
on a strategic plan to use associated gas from
its oil production as the key feedstock for the
production of chemicals, polymers and ferti-
lisers. With a US$80 bn market capitalisa-
tion, Sabic is now the largest public company
in the Middle East, though the government
still owns 70 per cent of its shares.
As one of the world’s top ten petro-
chemicals manufacturers, Sabic produces a
large and expanding range of products, and
is among the world’s market leaders in the
production of polyethylene, polypropylene,
glycols, methanol and fertilisers. Overall
production capacity has grown from 27 mn
tonnes in 2001 to 49.1 mn tonnes in 2006.
In the first nine months of 2007, Sabic re-
ported a 13 per cent increase in output to
40.9 mn tonnes.

The 36,000 sq. mtr. roof of China’s olympic stadium is
made of SABIC’s light-weight, self cleaning, Thermoclear
STRUCTURE
From its Riyadh headquarters, Sabic controls
18 manufacturing affiliates inside the King-
dom. Eight are joint ventures with foreign
partners, while seven are joint-venture deals
with local/regional partners. Three are whol-
ly owned. Most of its affiliates are based in
Jubail Industrial City and Dammam while
others are based in Yanbu.
The company has in the past ten years un-
dergone a major organisational restructuring,
shifting from a functional, site-based struc-
ture to a strategic business unit (SBU) struc-
ture. Sabic operates six interlinked SBUs:
basic chemicals, intermediates, speciality
products, polymers, fertilisers and metals.

72 march 2009 B.I.G ...Read more in BIG MARCH 2009 Issue