On February 24, in Long Son commune, Ba Ria Vung Tau province, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Southern Petrochemical Complex (LSP) with a total investment of 5.4 billion USD officially took place with the participation of the Prime Minister. General Nguyen Xuan Phuc, leader of Ba Ria Vung Tau province, representative of PetroVietnam (PVN) and SCG Group – the main investor of the project.
Southern Petrochemical Complex (LSP) is a complex with a total area of over 460 hectares, located in Long Son Petroleum Industrial Park (Ba Ria-Vung Tau), also the first petrochemical complex in Vietnam with a capacity olefin products about 1.6 million tons/year and other materials such as polyethylene, ploypropylene, etc. with a capacity of more than 2 million tons/year, to replace the polyolefins currently imported. It is expected that the Southern Petrochemical Complex will come into operation from 2023.
Roongrote Rangsiyopash, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCG Group, said that this is a project in the expansion strategy of this enterprise in ASEAN with Vietnam as the focus. SCG believes that the project will encourage long-term investment in relevant industries in the value chain as well as raise the competitive standard of products, thereby reducing the need to import petrochemical products.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Trinh, Secretary of the Ba Ria Vung Tau Provincial Party Committee, the project is expected to create about 15,000-20,000 jobs during construction, and more than 1,000 highly-skilled workers when it comes into commercial operation. . The project is also estimated to contribute 60 million USD/year to the national budget during 30 years from the time of operation.
The Southern Petrochemical Complex (LSP) was officially started construction after nearly 10 years from the date of issuance of the license since July 2008 with a total registered investment capital of 3.77 billion USD and after 2 capital increases. and change the shareholder structure.
In 2008, SCG Group, PVN and Qatar Petroleum International started the Long Son petrochemical complex project. However, due to the sharp decline in global oil prices in 2014, Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) withdrew from the project. Then, at the end of March 2017, SCG bought back all of QPI’s contributed capital, bringing the total number of shares SCG owns in the project from 46% to 71%.
Currently, SCG holds 71% of capital in Long Son Petrochemical Company Limited (LSP), the remaining 29% of capital belongs to PVN. PVN and SCG plan to borrow $3.2 billion from a bank out of a total of $5.4 billion for this project and will contribute the rest from their own capital.
SCG is a Thai corporation with a 2017 net profit of about 55.04 billion baht ($1.73 billion), focusing on three areas: cement-building materials, petrochemicals and packaging with more than 200 companies. subsidiaries in Southeast Asia, in which, 23 subsidiaries are operating in Vietnam with about 8,300 employees.
One of the big deals in Vietnam is buying Buu Long Cement Factory in Dong Nai and buying 85% shares of Prime Group Joint Stock Company (Vietnam) for nearly $5 trillion at the end of 2012.