Editor's Note:
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you -
just one word.
Ben: Yes sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Ben: Yes I am.
Mr. McGuire: 'Plastics.'
Ben: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it.
Will you think about it?
Ben: Yes I will.
Mr. McGuire: Enough said. That's a deal.
-- Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), "The Graduate" (1967)
http://www.filmsite.org/grad.html
Growing Muscle
Arab News Editorial
23 May 2007
Pundits, politicians and assorted crystal-ball
gazers around the world predict with unquestioning
conviction that the global economic future is
Chinese. They exaggerate. That China has massive
human resources and is an enormous market there is
no doubt � but global economic domination will not
be its alone. Other countries, not least Saudi
Arabia, will share in that.
That
certainty was made abundantly clear this week in the
$11.6 billion-purchase by Saudi Basic Industries
Corporation (SABIC) of GE�s plastics unit. As GE
chairman Jeff Immelt put it, the sale makes sense
both for his own company, the world�s biggest in
terms of capitalization � which he has been busy
restructuring � and for SABIC. It will, he said,
�transform the plastics industry by combining
SABIC�s low-cost materials position and global reach
with GE Plastics� strong marketing and technology
capabilities.�
The purchase, which will give SABIC a further 30,000
customers in different markets and sales of around
$6.7 billion a year, is further confirmation of its
growing international strength. Almost every month,
its news makes impressive reading. Last month, it
reported record profits of SR6.3 billion for the
first quarter 2007, an increase of 50 percent on the
same period in 2006. In January, the total 2006
profits were themselves another record, a staggering
SR20.3 billion. SABIC is the largest public company
in the Middle East by market capitalization,
currently around $80 billion, and one of the world�s
10 biggest petrochemicals manufacturers.
Month after month, SABIC companies report record
earnings, new mega projects are announced � such as
the recent SR13-billion joint venture phosphate
minerals scheme with Maaden � new businesses are
acquired worldwide � such as the $615 million
purchase of Huntsman�s chemicals and polymers
operation in the UK (now renamed SABIC UK
Petrochemicals). This is a company that the whole
world will soon recognize as a major player on the
international business stage. The name SABIC will
become instantly known in the US, in Europe and in
Asia just as are Exxon, Ford, HSBC and GE itself.
But the purchase says something more. It is not just
about SABIC�s looming global presence; it is also
about Saudi Arabia�s growing industrial muscle
worldwide.
The world lives on plastics in the same way it lives
on energy -- and Saudi Arabia is going to be in a
pre-eminent position in plastics in the same way it
is in oil. The Kingdom will not only supply much of
the raw material (and at lower costs) but be
involved all the way through to the finished
products. That may be done in the US, in China, in
Europe or in India, but the likelihood is that many
of the factories doing it will be owned by SABIC or
those Saudi private sector companies that are moving
into petrochemicals.
The future of plastics is green -- the green of the
Saudi flag.
Source:
Arab News
