Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (2010.SA), or Sabic, the Middle East 's largest listed company, said Tuesday its joint venture with China Petrochemical and Chemical Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec Group, to build a new polycarbonate plant at its petrochemical complex in Tianjin city will cost $1.7 billion.

The new polycarbonate production complex with an annual production capacity of 260,000 metric tons will be located at the Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical Co., or SSTPC, complex in northern China 's Tianjin city, Sabic said in an emailed statement.

Sabic, which revealed the plan first in May last year, said the plant will be operational by 2015 and construction will start immediately.

Polycarbonate is a key plastic used for producing components for automotive parts and a variety of consumer products.

When the plant is fully operational, Sabic will become one of the world's largest producers of polycarbonate, significantly boosting Sabic's market share, the firm has said. The joint venture, which covers marketing, allows Sabic to supply polycarbonate as feedstock to the company's other plants in China and the Pacific region.

Petrochemical makers such as Sabic are boosting their exports to and investments in Asia , notably China , to meet rapidly rising demand for chemicals and plastics used in the production of industrial and consumer products.

The Sabic-Sinopec deal came at the end of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's first trip to Saudi Arabia as part of a six-day tour to the Middle East .

Sinopec Saturday separately signed an agreement with state giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, to develop a 400,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery at Yanbu, on the Saudi Red Sea coast

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