After more than two years of fierce battles day and night, with over a thousand builders carrying out relay attacks, the Gulei Petrochemical Base in Fujian has achieved a major breakthrough! This super ethylene plant, which has set a new global record, has successfully completed all construction and installation tasks, ushered in the delivery of key nodes, and officially bid farewell to the construction phase and entered a new journey of production sprint.

The device has been successfully delivered

On June 18, 2026, the Zhongsha Gulei Ethylene Project located in the Gulei Petrochemical Park in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, reached a critical construction milestone. The core main equipment of the project, the annual production capacity of 1.8 million tons of ethylene plant, completed high standard intermediate handover and simultaneously started joint commissioning work. This means that the project has fully entered the stage of trial production, laying a solid foundation for the scheduled production in the second half of 2026.

Breaking the industry construction record

This completed handover of the ethylene plant has a maximum annual output of 1.8 million tons, making it the world's largest ethylene production equipment in terms of single capacity. After the start of the construction of the device, all participating teams simultaneously focused on safety control, engineering quality, and construction progress, working continuously for 840 days and accumulating a total of 9.6 million safe construction hours, setting a new industry record for more efficient and efficient construction in similar large-scale ethylene projects. The project completed the lifting operation of 5 thousand ton large-scale towers in just 32 days, with multiple core construction indicators breaking the industry's original standards, fully demonstrating China's top capabilities in large-scale petrochemical engineering construction.

China Saudi Arabia Cooperation Benchmark Project

The entire project has now entered the pre production linkage test phase. After the project is officially put into operation, it can significantly improve the self-sufficiency level of high-end chemical raw materials in China, reduce the dependence on imported high-end chemical products, ensure the stability and safety of China's domestic petrochemical industry chain and supply chain, promote the transformation of China's domestic petrochemical industry towards high-end, agglomeration and modernization, and help Fujian build a world-class petrochemical industry base, driving high-quality development of the local economy. Keywords: ethylene, chemical industry, China Saudi Arabia cooperation

Fujian Zhongsha Petrochemical Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between Saudi Basic Industries Company and Fujian Energy Petrochemical Group. The company has invested in the construction of an integrated petrochemical project with an annual output of up to 1.8 million tons of ethylene and supporting deep processing at the Gulei Petrochemical Base, with a total investment of approximately 44.8 billion yuan, equivalent to 6.4 billion US dollars. This project is the largest foreign-funded project invested by Fujian in a single investment, and also a benchmark energy and chemical cooperation project for China's the Belt and Road Initiative to align with Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision. It has important demonstration value for deepening China Saudi Arabia practical cooperation and promoting high-level opening up.Editor/Gong Ziwei