China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) announced on May 17 the company will establish a new polycarbonate production plant with an annual capacity of 260,000 tons with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. at their existing joint venture in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The new polycarbonate production plant is expected to be put into operation by 2015, said Sinopec.

Polycarbonate is an essential plastic used for producing components of automotive parts, compact discs and a variety of consumer products as well as other industrial components.