Jun. 11, 2012 (China Knowledge) – Sinopec Group, the parent co of Sinopec<600028><0386>, Asia's largest oil refiner, announced last Friday that it had inked an agreement with SIBUR, a Russian petrochemicals company controlled by Russian billionaire Leonid Michelson, to set up a joint venture in Shanghai, sources reported.

According to the agreement, the new JV will mainly engage in the production of nitrile rubber and isoprene rubber, both annual productions capacity is about 50,000 metric tons.

Nitrile rubber is widely used in the area including automobile, aerospace, oil exploitation, and textiles; in 2009, China imported a total of 112,600 metric tons of such rubber. While the isoprene rubber is the main substitution of natural rubber and China has become the world's largest natural rubber consumer and importer.

In March 2012, Sinopec Group set up a 50-50 joint venture with Japan-based Mitsui Chemicals Inc. to produce ethylene-propylene diene terpolymer in Shanghai, China Knowledge reported earlier.