S'pore opens costly chemical park in Jurong
S'pore opens costly chemical park in Jurong
SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore at the weekend inaugurated a multi-
billion-dollar integrated chemical hub on a sprawling man-made
island that boasts among its clients the industry's brightest
stars such as ExxonMobil.
The flagship project on Jurong Island, which rose from the sea
after an amalgamation of seven forlorn land chips through
reclamation, now hosts 61 companies with total investments of
S$21 billion (US$12 billion).
Developers are planning to house 150 companies with
investments totaling S$40 billion by 2010.
"What you have accomplished with Jurong island will help
entrench the chemical cluster as a key component of Singapore's
manufacturing sector," Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said at the
inauguration of the hub Saturday evening.
He said the chemical industry contributed a total of S$23
billion last year, or 17 percent of total manufacturing output,
the main propeller of Singapore's trade-driven economy.
Reclaimed from the sea in an epic construction effort over the
past six years at a cost of S$7 billion, Jurong Island hosts an
integrated chemicals hub adjacent to the world's busiest
container port here.
Four petroleum refiners, 30 petrochemical firms, five
specialty and industrial chemical companies and 22 supporting
industries are grouped in clusters across a land area of 991
hectares (2,447 acres) just off the southwestern coast of
mainland Singapore.
By 2004, the land area is expected to expand to 3,200 hectares
as reclamation is completed.
The facilities are linked through a common pipeline service
corridor and locators need not build power stations, tanks,
jetties, warehouses or workshops but hire them, officials of
developer Jurong Town Corp. said.
The island's tenants comprise a who's who of the oil and
petrochemical world.
ExxonMobil's US$2 billion complex greets the visitor as he
drives past bougainvillea-lined roads in the Ayer Chawan zone.
Over at the Sakra zone are two plants of Du Pont worth US$810
million and the headquarters of Chevron Oronite, one of the
world's top three suppliers of lubricants and additives.
Teijin Polycarbonate, the world's leading producer of optical
grade polycarbonate, stands further down the street.