Converting

The growth of the Middle East as a source of polymers for European converters has been boosted with the announcement of two large-scale investments in the region.

Octal Holding is investing £150m ($300m) in APET production facilities in Oman, which it said would increase global supply by 300,000 tonnes when the plant opens next June.

And Portugal's ImatosGil Investimentos is to build a 450,000-tonnes PET plant in Saudi Arabia in a joint venture with local firm Chemical Development Company. Production at the plant is due to start in late 2009, although the exact location is so far unknown.

Octal can produce a sheet with +/-1% tolerance, which it believes will improve growth in a sector that has suffered from "a lack of reliable capacity and inefficiencies in the manufacturing process".

Managing director Nicholas Barakat said: "Polyester has so far not delivered the cost advantages to be able to take full advantage of it, but we have the customised technology to become the absolute low-cost producer. Tonne per tonne, we can get more packaging out of the material."

Octal Holding, which started operating in late 2006, is a venture between US private equity firms Chemlink Capital and Pound Capital and businesses in the Middle East. It said Oman is the ideal location because it can supply any part of the world within 18 days.

ImatosGil chairman Manuel Matos Gil is a major shareholder in La Seda de Barcelona, which took over Amcor's European PET production plants in July.