Sipchem CEO: SAMAPCO plant shutdown costs SAR 130M in Q4, market recovery signals seen

Abdullah Al-Saadoon, CEO of Sahara International Petrochemical Co. (Sipchem)

Sahara International Petrochemical Co.'s (Sipchem) CEO Abdullah Al-Saadoon said that the maintenance work on the Sahara and Maaden Petrochemical Co. (SMAPCO) plant cost about SAR 30 million, adding that the impact on products was much greater, reaching SAR 100 million during the fourth quarter 2024.

In an interview with Al Arabiya TV, Al-Saadoon explained that Q4 2024 results were impacted by the one-month shutdown of the SMAPCO plant, in addition to the effects of acquisitions from peer manufacturing companies, which contributed an estimated SAR 57 million.

He added that 2024 was a challenging year, as product prices decreased by 8% year-on-year (YoY), and sales were affected by maintenance work at several plants.

Despite the lack of clarity, Al-Saadoun thinks there are encouraging signs of market recovery because of the improvement in the prices of some products in 2025. These include methanol, whose price increased by 8%, and EPA, whose price increased by 4%, in addition to the improvement in polypropylene prices.

He added that the company imports feedstock for vinyl acetate and ethanol, which witnessed a surge in their prices during 2024, making the continued operation of the plant economically unfeasible.