02/01/2011 00:00 AST
Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) expects its new low-density polyethylene (LDPE-3) plant with a 300,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) capacity to start production by the year-end.
Qapco’s two existing low-density polyethylene production lines - LDPE 1 & 2 account for more than 400,000 tpy.
“Construction on site reached 2,764,520 man-hours without lost time accident,” Qapco said in a statement.
Qapco, a major global petrochemical producer, is also in the process of tendering for its ethylene plant revamp (EP3) to lift production to 900,000 tpy by mid-2012.
Qapco started its commercial ethylene production in 1980 with a design capacity of 360,000 tpy. The capacity was boosted to 525,000tpy in 1996 and 720,000tpy through an expansion project (EP2) in 2007.
Qatofin was launched in April 2009 with a capacity to produce 450,000 metric tonnes per year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).
The required ethylene feed stock is being provided by Ras Laffan Olefins Company.
Qatofin is a joint venture involving Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) (63%), Total Petrochemicals of France (36%) and Qatar Petroleum (1%).
Mesaieed-based Qatofin is Qatar’s first petrochemical facility to produce linear low-density polyethylene, a highly versatile polymer used in the production of a wide variety of plastic products like bags, toys and cable coverings.
Qapco is also gearing up to further expand its sprawling global marketing network. This year the company plans to open new representative offices in Morocco and South Africa.
Qapco’s global marketing network consists of 29 self operated offices and six regional warehouses. This year the company opened representative offices at Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Philippines and logistic facilities in Tripoli, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Qingdao (China).
Last year saw Qapco participate in many exhibitions including ChinaPlast Exhibition, Plastex Cairo Exhibition, Germany K-Exhibition and the 5th GPCA Annual Conference & Exhibition in Dubai.
In November last year, Qapco launched its newly designed and user-friendly website, which is packed with a lot of features.
The month also saw Qapco setting a new world record by launching the largest T-shirt in the world to show its support for Qatar’s bid to host FIFA 2022.
Qapco’s Qatarisation drive launched in December saw a gathering of more than 200 national employees, industry officials and representatives of premier educational institutions in the country.
Qapco said it has strong ties with local educational and research centres such as Texas A&M University, where the company employees have been enrolled for various programmes and projects and events are supported.
Gulf Times
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