The Gulf petrochemical industry was urged to stand up against anti-dumping practices, by a major Saudi petrochemicals company.

Speaking during the ArabPlast 2011 expo, Engineer Hamed I Khalil, vice president, marketing and sales, Natpet said: “We urge the Gulf countries to act as one body on the global level. We call on certain countries to stop unfair anti-dumping practices and we urge other Gulf countries to support us in our fight against this practice, which violates WTO regulations.”

He also sought higher deployment of local manpower in the petrochemical sector, and called on universities and industry leaders to collaborate on preparing petrochemical specialists who could lead this rapidly growing industry in the Gulf.

Khalil said that there was a shortage of local workers in the petrochemical industry and this needs to be addressed.
He said Natpet has more than 50 percent Saudi nationals in its workforce but overall the Gulf industry has a lower concentration of locals in the petrochemicals industry.

Khalil added: “Operating from a major petrochemical base, with its upstream integrated propane dehydrogenation unit, Natpet enjoys excellent availability of main raw material, the propylene monomer. Saudi Arabia, through its port cities of Yanbu and neighbouring Jeddah, enjoys the advantage of being central to all major international ports.”

The national pavilions at the ArabPlast have got bigger this year, with many countries being represented under national umbrellas.
Satish Khanna, general manager, Al Fajer Information and Services, co-organiser of ArabPlast, said companies from Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, USA and Vietnam are participating in the show.

The Indian pavilion is the biggest in the history of ArabPlast.

M K Lokesh, Ambassador of India to the UAE, said: “UAE is India’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $43 billion annually. The figure crossed $13 billion in the 1st quarter of our 2010 fiscal year i-e April- June 2010. India is the world’s third largest producer of plastics after USA and China, with an annual growth of 15 to 20 percent. We expect a three-fold growth in the demand for plastics in the region. The UAE is a re-export center for our products. We also export petrochemicals to UAE, Qatar and KSA.”

The ArabPlast Summit starts today (January 10) to discuss key challenges facing the growth of raw plastics and petrochemicals in the GCC region.  All India Plastics Manufactures Association, the Indian partners for Arabplast, is also organizing a conference on the emerging opportunities in India in the plastics sector. – TradeArabia News Service