Dubai (Platts)--19Jan2011/542 am EST/1042 GMT
The consumption of polyethylene terephthalate is rising at a rate of 12% a year in the Middle East, Nicholas Barakat, the Managing Director of Oman's Octal Petrochemicals, which plans to build the largest PET manufacturing plant by 2012, said Tuesday. Octal produces 400,000 mt/year of PET at Salalah in Oman. It is adding an additional capacity of 527,000 mt/year at the same site under a second phase expansion. PET is a polymer used mainly for packaging of carbonated soft drinks and mineral water bottles. "The demand for PET in the Middle East is being driven by the tourism industry. We expect this demand to be boosted by the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022," Barakat said. Though the company sees most of its PET products -- sheets and resins -- heading out to the US and Europe in the next two years, it will pay more attention to the Middle East markets as demand grows in the region, another company official said. According to PCI, an industry advisory group, the consumption of PET in the Middle East will rise by 47.9% over 2010-2015 to 2.3 million mt/year while only the Persian Gulf countries, including, Yemen will see PET consumption rise 250,000 mt/year over the same period. "The availability of cheaper energy resources and feedstock in the Middle East makes it a good destination for setting up a PET plant," said another Dubai-based industry source. A 400,000 mt/year capacity PET resin and chips plant at Ras Al Khaimah operated under a joint venture between JBF Industries of India and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority is another prominent PET manufacturing capacity to have come up recently in the Middle East. --Shashank Shekhar, shashank_shekhar@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Europe & Americas Petrochemical Scan. See more information at http://bit.ly/EuropeAmericasPetrochemicalScan