NEW YORK, January 3, 2026, 09:46 ET — Market closed.
National Industrialization Co (Tasnee) is likely to be in focus when trading resumes on the Saudi Stock Exchange on Sunday after the petrochemicals group said a key joint venture began a planned shutdown on Jan. 2 that is expected to run for about 66 days.
The outage spans much of the first quarter, when investors track volumes and pricing spreads — the gap between product prices and raw-material costs — to gauge petrochemical profitability.
With Saudi markets shut over the weekend, the first read-through will come when the market reopens, with any price reaction landing alongside moves in oil and global chemicals.
Tasnee said Saudi Ethylene and Polyethylene Co (SEPC), a joint venture with Sahara Olefins that is 60% owned by Tasnee, will undergo scheduled periodic maintenance that coincides with work on an ethylene cracking unit expansion. Sipchem holds a 32.55% stake in SEPC, Argaam reported. Tasnee said the financial impact will depend on the actual duration and product prices during the outage and will be reflected in first-quarter results, and it will disclose any material developments. Tasnee shares last closed at 9.15 riyals, down 0.76%, and have fallen 20.43% over the past three months, Argaam data showed.
An ethylene cracker is the unit that turns hydrocarbons into ethylene, a basic chemical used to make plastics such as polyethylene that end up in packaging and pipes.
In petrochemicals, planned shutdowns are routine, but timing matters. A long outage can tighten supply, shift contract volumes and change which products drive earnings in the quarter.
Oil remains part of the backdrop, because it influences both sentiment and feedstock economics across the sector. “Oil prices are locked in this long-term trading range,” Phil Flynn at Price Futures Group said, as traders weighed an OPEC+ meeting on Jan. 4. Reuters
SEPC operates a 1 million-tonne-per-year ethylene cracker and polyethylene plants in Jubail, Argus has reported.
For Tasnee, investors will watch whether the shutdown stays close to the planned timeline, how selling prices for polymers move during the outage, and what the company says about the pace of restarting production.
Before the next session on Sunday, traders will also be looking for any update on the ethylene cracker expansion work, since delays can push the earnings impact beyond a single quarter.
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