OCTAL increases capital to reach US$1.1 billion in exports by 2011
August 16, 2009
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Packaging leader now supplies 90 per cent of local demand for
PET resin
Muscat, Oman, June 9, 2009: After just 5 months of operations at its new manufacturing facility in the Salalah Free Zone,
emerging global packaging leader OCTAL Petrochemicals has substituted 90% of PET
resin imports into Oman, valued at nearly US$42 million a year.
OCTAL Chairman Sheikh Saad Suhail Bahwan said: “Omani companies can now buy from a world-class
Omani supplier, reducing expenditure on expensive overseas imports and investing
instead in factories and Omani jobs. This is a great advertisement for local
manufacturing.”
“Sales are set to increase further in June as customers use up their old inventories of PET and
switch over to OCTAL,” Sheikh Saad added. OCTAL produces PET resin for soft
drinks, bottled water, and edible oil packaging, as well as PET sheet, the
world’s fastest growing choice of material for clear rigid plastic packaging
applications.
Mr. E.M Ashraf, Director of the Oman-based OCTAL customer Areej Vegetable Oils and Derivatives
SAOG, said OCTAL’s local production reduces costs, increases competitiveness and
creates opportunities for growth.
He said: “Buying from OCTAL has allowed us to dramatically reduce inventory by as much as 70
per cent, and save working capital to invest in other parts of our business,
such as jobs, training and product innovation. Omani companies want to invest in
their home market while remaining confident that locally sourced products and
services meet international standards such that they can compete in
international markets.”
OCTAL’s PET resin, made at its new integrated production facility in Salalah Free Zone,
delivers improved cost savings and environmental performance. Besides supplying
its home market, OCTAL exports PET resin to more than 30 countries in the Middle
East, Africa, Europe, the United States, Asia and the Far East. Annual sales are
expected to reach US$400 million.
Eng. Awadh bin Salim Al Shanfari, CEO of Salalah Free Zone, said: “OCTAL was the first company
to set up in Salalah Free Zone in December 2006 and its rapid expansion has
helped raise the profile of the free zone dramatically. Both parties have worked
in close cooperation and the results in terms of local employment and business
opportunities have been tremendous. Salalah Free Zone is the ideal location from
which to serve global markets, and the success of OCTAL is evidence of that.”
Opened in January 2009, OCTAL’s
integrated PET resin and clear rigid sheet production facility was built at an
initial cost of US$350 million. Its current production capacity of 300,000 m/t
is set to increase to 800,000 m/t when a second phase of expansion is completed
in 2011. At that point, OCTAL will be the largest PET producer on one site in
the world.
OCTAL’s investors include the National
Investment Fund Company (NIFCO), Muscat Overseas, Oman Investment Company,
Malatan Trading and Contracting, Oman and Emirates Investment Holding, Suhail
Bahwan Group, Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding Company
(DIDIC), Bank Muscat, and the MENA Infrastructure Fund (HSBC).