SABIC — Company directory

Riyadh-based petrochemicals group, 70 per cent owned by Saudi Aramco, producing polymers, chemicals and agri-nutrients at Jubail and Yanbu and selling to industrial customers worldwide.

SABIC, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, is a petrochemicals manufacturer based in Riyadh and one of the largest in the world. It converts Saudi hydrocarbon feedstock into olefins, aromatics, glycols, polymers, specialised plastics and agri-nutrients at integrated complexes in Al-Jubail on the Gulf coast and Yanbu on the Red Sea, and it sells to converters, manufacturers and industrial customers in more than a hundred markets. Saudi Aramco owns 70 per cent of the shares and the remaining 30 per cent trade on the Saudi stock exchange.

Ownership and structure

SABIC was founded in 1976 by royal decree to add value to the kingdom's associated gas and oil liquids, and its fiftieth anniversary falls in 2026. Aramco became the majority shareholder in 2020 when it bought the stake held by the Public Investment Fund. The company reports as a listed Saudi entity and is organised around petrochemicals, specialties, polymers and agri-nutrients, with technology and innovation centres in Saudi Arabia, the United States, Europe and Asia. Its principal corporate offices are in Riyadh.

Second-quarter 2026 results

For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 SABIC reported revenue of 24.81 billion riyals, or 6.62 billion US dollars, a decrease of 5 per cent on the previous quarter. Adjusted EBITDA fell 18 per cent quarter on quarter to 3.38 billion riyals, or 900 million dollars, and adjusted EBIT dropped 72 per cent to 411 million riyals, or 110 million dollars. The company recorded an adjusted net loss of 376 million riyals, about 100 million dollars, equal to an adjusted loss per share of 0.13 riyals. Net debt stood at 2.73 billion riyals at 30 June 2026, little changed from 2.77 billion riyals at the end of March. Management attributed the results to geopolitical uncertainty, supply disruptions and elevated energy prices, and pointed to the balance sheet and disciplined capital allocation as the basis for resilience. SABIC also announced dividends of 3.3 billion riyals, about 880 million dollars, and reported an environment, health, safety and security total recordable incident rate of 0.08.

Portfolio programme

The company is part-way through a portfolio optimisation programme. During 2026 it signed agreements to divest its European petrochemicals business and its engineering thermoplastics business in the Americas and Europe, and reported both transactions as progressing towards completion. The divestments follow earlier moves to reshape the portfolio and reduce exposure to lower-margin commodity assets in Europe, while retaining the specialties and polymers businesses that serve automotive, electrical and electronics, packaging, building and construction, healthcare and mass transportation customers.

Growth projects and markets

Capital is being concentrated on a small number of large projects. The SABIC Fujian Petrochemical Complex in China, a joint venture with Fujian Petrochemical Company, remained on track with start-up expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. In Saudi Arabia the company started commercial production at a one-million-tonne MTBE plant, which supplies a gasoline blend component, and it continued work under its transformation and portfolio programmes. Logistics also featured in the quarter: SABIC said the volume of polymers it moved from the kingdom's eastern plants to western ports more than doubled as trade flows shifted, which matters because exports from Jubail and Yanbu reach customers across Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa.

How SABIC sits in the energy chain

SABIC is a downstream consumer of oil and gas rather than a producer. Its crackers and derivative plants take ethane, propane, butane and naphtha supplied largely by Aramco, so its margins move with feedstock allocation and with global chemical prices. It in turn supplies the energy industry through products such as MTBE for gasoline blending, glycols and process chemicals, and materials used in pipelines, insulation and industrial equipment. The Aramco shareholding links its strategy to the kingdom's wider plan to convert crude oil and gas into higher-value chemicals, and to Aramco's own chemicals ambitions, which include integration with the group's refining network.