The Safco complex at Dammam manufactures 200,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of ammonia, all of which is used as feedstock to produce 330,000 tpy of prilled urea.

Safco became a Sabic affiliate as part of a national strategy to co-ordinate the growth of the fertiliser industry in the Kingdom.

In 1993, Safco started up its second ammonia and granular urea complex, located in Jubail.

Its initial capacities were 500,000 tpy of ammonia and 600,000 tpy of granular urea. Seventy per cent of ammonia output at Safco Jubail is used to produce urea, while 30 per cent is sold on the international market.

All of the granular urea output is exported. Safco's 500,000 tpy ammonia plant and the 600,000 tpy urea plant began production in January 2000.

Samad, a joint venture between Sabic and the Taiwan Fertilizer Company (TFC), was the second nitrogen complex to come onstream in Saudi Arabia. Also based in Jubail, it began manufacturing operations in February.

Samad has the capacity to produce 334,000 tpy of ammonia and 534,000 tpy of prilled urea.

Like other Sabic fertiliser plants, Safco's ammonia and urea plants in Dammam and Jubail have been operating on average at a utilisation rate of 100 per cent.

Safco also owns 50 per cent of Ibn Al Baytar in Jubail, Sabic's third nitrogenous fertiliser production complex and the first to manufacture compound fertilisers.