Octal has completed its latest expansion, taking annual production capacity of PET resin and PET sheet to 1 million tonnes from 400,000 tonnes at its Salalah plant.
The company expects to generate sales of $1.5 billion in 2013 and the focus that year will be on building a PTA plant and starting additional operations outside of Oman, Octal CEO Nicholas Barakat told Gulf Industry. “Octal has already invested close to $600 million in its facilities in Salalah and is in the process of evaluating further global investment opportunities upstream and downstream,” he said.
“The Omani market is a developing market with promising prospects. Octal has replaced close to 100 per cent of foreign imports of PET resin into the country and is helping local producers be more competitive in their markets,” said Barakat, adding that the company was also working on several packaging initiatives with local producers of agricultural products with the aim of designing better packaging.
Octal supplies its products to more than 40 countries around the world. With the additional capacity, the company will be able to enhance its presence in existing markets and expand its distribution base to cover markets not served yet.
“PET continues to be one of the fastest growing polymers in the world. The growth rate in global demand for PET resin stands around 8 per cent while the growth rate in PET sheet is around 4 per cent,” estimates Barakat.