JURONG Island could see a string of three new specialty chemical investments, two from the West and one from North-east Asia, worth a total of over $1 billion in the coming 12 months, a Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore official told BT.

Their entry will in turn trigger additional investments by PCS in two high-tech, supporting plants costing over $150 million each, as the pioneer petrochemicals producer here gears up to produce higher-value specialty chemicals, versus basic commodity products, to better compete with new Middle East plants coming up.

'This is the direction which PCS is now going so that we can compete with China and others,' PCS deputy managing director Stan Park disclosed, reiterating the stance spelt out by Sumitomo Chemical chairman Hiromasa Yonekura, who earlier told BT that it is restructuring its Singapore operations so that it can meet the challenge of new Middle East crackers.

PCS, which operates two crackers here with a total capacity of 1.4 million tonnes, is a 50:50 joint venture between Shell and a Japanese consortium led by Sumitomo.

On the upcoming new specialty chemical investments, Mr Park said that the first of these is by a North-east Asian investor which is expected to decide on a $300 million performance chemicals plant by year-end.

If the green light is given, PCS will build a support plant, costing over $150 million, to supply feedstock to the plant, he added.

Germany's Lanxess AG last month also said that it had short-listed Singapore as one of three possible sites, the others being Malaysia and Thailand, for a 400 million euro (S$827 million) plant to produce butyl rubber, a synthetic rubber used by the tyre industry.

It is also expected to make its decision by year-end, with this triggering another possible PCS plant investment, also costing over $150 million, but in this instance, to further process some of the spare butyl rubber produced by Lanxess, Mr Park said.

A third investor, involving a large international concern, could follow the North-east Asian investor here to produce another specialty chemical stream, he added.

The three upcoming specialty investments are projects which will capitalise on the use of the heavier C4-C9 chemical streams from the cracker, Mr Park said.

The refocus by PCS on making specialty chemicals began with its new US$50 million methathesis investment which was commissioned late last year.

The plant - the showpiece of a recently completed US$100 million investment package of upgrading projects at the PCS complex - uses advanced technology to convert raw materials like butene and ethylene to propylene.

This gives PCS greater operational flexibility, including managing the output of its two main basic lines of ethylene and propylene, to respond to market changes.

The Economic Development Board has also said that the competitive strength of Singapore's petrochemical industry will have to be anchored in technology and be beefed up by building new chemical chains.

Reflecting the Singapore chemical industry's move towards manufacture of specialty grades, ExxonMobil, which is making its investment decision soon on a second world-scale petrochemical complex here, is also planning to build its first specialty elastomers plant in Asia as part of the Singapore project.