MUSCAT, 18 September 2007 — Oman-based amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (APET) sheet packaging producer Octal Holding, plans to become the world’s biggest producer of the increasingly popular form of plastic packaging with 20 percent market share, and the Middle East’s largest producer of PET resins.
In a statement, company’s Managing Director Nicholas Barakat, said: “By mid-2008, Octal will have sales of $500 million per annum, and with a strong equity base, we’re in a position to expand as needed.”
Worldwide sales of APET were approximately $2.25 billion in 2006, mostly in the US and Europe.
Octal, which started operations at Salalah Free Zone in December 2006, has invested more than $300 million in proprietary technology and custom-engineered production lines.
Octal’s parent company Chemlink Capital Limited and Pound Capital Limited, both US-based private investment firms specializing in downstream petrochemical projects, have provided the initial funding along with institutional and individual investors in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Bank Muscat is the financial adviser to the project.
Nilesh Gavankar, head of Investment Banking and Advisory Services, BankMuscat, said: “Octal is the first project of this size in the region that is being financed on a limited recourse project finance basis.”
The move to develop one of the world’s fastest growing packaging companies in the Sultanate responds to the global trend for convenience food packaging and the increasing use of clear rigid plastic for consumer products and merchandising. APET’s clarity, gloss and toughness make it ideal for goods that require both protection and shelf impact, and the product is completely recyclable.
Octal entered the market with 20,000 metric tons of capacity and an additional 10,000 metric tons per year has come on stream this month. A new twin PET resin and APET sheet complex will provide a further 300,000 metric tons of APET sheet-making capacity from April 2008. At that stage, Octal will be five times larger than the next producer of APET sheet and the largest PET manufacturer in the Middle East. It will represent nearly 20 percent of the total industry output of APET sheet.
The first plant to go up in Salalah Free Zone, Octal’s APET facility has a built-up area of 4,000 square meters, and that will grow to 135,000 square meters when the integrated PET resin and APET sheet complex comes on stream next year.
