Integrated Energy and Chemicals leader Aramco signed a five-year Cooperation Framework Agreement with China National Building Material Group Co., Ltd. (CNBM), one of the world’s largest producers of building materials, to explore new opportunities in advanced materials and industrial development.
Companies have identified a number of areas where they can cooperate and even set up a joint production facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to manufacture wind turbine blades, hydrogen storage tanks, building materials with lower carbon content, and energy storage solutions.
Wail Al Jaafari, EVP of Technical Services at Aramco, said, “We look forward to expanding our efforts with CNBM as we pursue new potential breakthroughs in materials science that have all the makings to put real improvements into the built environment and beyond. From developing solutions that could reduce construction emissions to enhancing performance through innovation, we’re excited to help facilitate this materials shift. We will focus on uncovering innovative breakthroughs and new opportunities for business while promoting the development of manufacturing capabilities inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by combining the industry know-how of both CNBM and Aramco.”
“CNBM emphasizes strategic cooperation with Aramco. This agreement combines the strengths of both CNBM and Aramco in a bid for win-win cooperation,” CNBM Chairman Zhou Yuxian said.” The nonmetallic materials industry is an area in which CNBM would like to contribute to the low-carbon transition. Based on work that we are doing in low-carbon integrated solutions, we believe we can complement Aramco’s efforts in developing a materials transition. This Agreement envisions a wide range of cooperation with potential to beneficially contribute to low-carbon development while supporting further strategic alignment between China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
This CFA follows on the heels of the 2021 launch of the Nonmetallic Excellence and Innovation Center for Building Materials (NEXCEL) in Beijing by Aramco and the China Building Materials Academy (CBMA), the science and technology arm of CNBM.
