Saudi Arabia's SABIC is planning to set up more than three joint ventures in China, according to its acting CEO Yousef Al Benyan,Bloomberg reports.

“There are good prospects there, and hopefully we will be able to announce them in the first quarter next year,” Al Benyan said, adding that he discussed potential ventures while on a visit to China last week.

“We have more than three opportunities for joint ventures in China and we will announce them accordingly,” he said in an interview in Riyadh.

The biggest petrochemical producer in the Middle East recently dissolved its plastics unit headquartered in the US as part of its plans to restructure the company by January 1st, 2016.

Sabic Innovative Plastics (IP) was one of the world’s largest polycarbonate makers but in the past few years has faced significant challenges posed by the current market conditions.

“The restructuring plans will also result in some redundancies in the U.S. and will have the most impact on Europe,” Al Benyan said, adding that the reorganisation won’t affect the company’s operations in the Middle East.

SABIC is on track to expand investment in US shale gas projects through joint ventures, according to Al Benyan.

“We are still very engaged in several opportunities in shale gas investments in the US. Current market conditions place some pressure on some of these investment opportunities, but in the long term these investment are feasible and we are hoping to announce some of these investments in the US next year.”