A man walks past the headquarters of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. File photo: VCG

Eyeing the opportunities that come with China's greater opening-up, and a new foreign investment law that is scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2020, senior executives of petrochemical maker SABIC said on Monday the company is committed to and has confidence in China's petrochemical market.

SABIC will further expand its foothold in the country, they said. 

"We will always focus on the long-term target and profits in the China market, and our investment commitment in China will continue," Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, executive vice president of petrochemicals, SABIC, told a group interview in Beijing on Monday, dismissing concerns over downward pressure on the world's second largest economy.

Al-Fageeh said he was looking forward to the upcoming new foreign investment law, and the country's further opening-up and removal of restrictions in the chemical industry will attract more foreign companies in the future.

The positive remarks come amid flourishing growth momentum in China's chemical industry, which has drawn the attention of major global players.

According to industry data and analytics company GlobalData, Asia - largely led by China - will dominate the global petrochemical market in the coming decades with both the number of new projects and absolute capacity expansion. Asia has 594 planned and announced plants, of which China has 257. 

Data from information company IHS shows that 40 percent of global chemical demand and 60 percent of new investment opportunities will be located in China in the near future. 

ExxonMobil, a US-based giant in the industry, signed a cooperation framework agreement in September last year with the Guangdong provincial government in South China to advance discussions about a proposed chemical complex, saying that the new facility would help meet expected demand growth for chemical products in China.

In SABIC's latest move, the company signed an initial agreement with the Fujian provincial government in East China, aiming to build a "world-scale" petrochemical complex to strengthen its position in the market, according to a statement on the company's website.

Al-Fageeh said that the company is making progress with China's state-owned petroleum giant Sinopec on a large investment in their 50-50 joint venture SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Co.

"Under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, SABIC expects to explore more opportunities in third markets with Chinese companies like Sinopec. We also welcome companies from other countries to join the cooperation, " Al-Fageeh said.