The new facility is expected to produce about 100,000 tons of benzene per annum, 92,000 tons of paraxylene, 80,000 tons of isomer-grade mixed xylene and 50,000 tons of orthoxylene.
The plant will be set up at the same site in Hub coastal area, about 50 km from Karachi, where Byco operates a 35,000-barrels-per-day refinery.
Byco is also building a 120,000-barrels-per-day refinery at the same site and expects to begin production from the unit in the fourth quarter of this year.
The new refinery will provide the naphtha feedstock needed for the aromatic facility, reports pakobserver.net.
Byco chemical manufacturing president Mohammad Wasi Khan said the plant has already been relocated from Italy and the facility’s construction is in progress.
Khan said the reconstruction of the plant will start in the first quarter of 2012 and it should come online by the middle of 2013.
The company plans to sell 50% of its products inside the country and will export the rest to Middle East, Africa and China, Khan added.
