Iran is in the final stage of an international tender on the establishment of a 300,000-ton-a-year plant to produce polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh, head of the state National Petrochemical Co., has said. Nematzadeh said that the project, slated for construction at Bandar Imam port in the SW Iranian province of Khuzestan, will also produce 300,000 tons of ethylene dichloride, or EDC, which has been earmarked for exports. European, Japanese and South Korean companies have submitted bids and the outcome of the tender winner will be announced in about a month or two. Nematzadeh said the NPC has not finalized technical and financial assessment on the project. However, its engineering and equipment procurement’s cost is estimated at about USD 400 million. In addition to the PVC project, the NPC has also put two units for ethylene and methanol production in the Persian Gulf island of Kharg on international tender. The company is also currently preparing documents on a petrochemical plant in the western Iranian province of Ilam, near the borders with Iraq, Nematzadeh said. Total investments in Iran’s petrochemical sector since 1989, the bulk of which has come from international investors, is around USD 10 billion, of which around USD 7 billion pertain to the engineering and equipment parts.
