Borouge chief calls for regional plastics producers to up their game

The global packaging market – flexible plastic materials such as bags and shrink wrap – is set to grow 5 per cent this year. Delores Johnson / The National

Regional plastics producers must create new products to catch up with the global industry, according to the chief executive of Borouge.

“Innovation holds the key to the success and sustainability of the plastics industry,” said Abdulaziz Alhajri, CEO of the petrochemicals joint venture between Adnoc and Austria’s Borealis, at the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association conference in Sharjah yesterday. “This commitment to innovation will establish the Gulf as a hub for plastics innovation and plastic conversion.”

The global packaging market – flexible plastic materials such as bags and shrink wrap – is set to grow 5 per cent this year as more people move to cities and incomes grow in developing countries, according to an industry consultancy.

But companies in the Middle East, which account for 5 per cent of the world’s manufacturing capacity for such products, will not be a major beneficiary of that expansion, according to data from PCI Films Consulting of the UK.

The figures show that despite efforts by GCC countries to diversify their economies by moving farther down the hydrocarbons chain to make higher-value products from raw petrochemicals, they have a long way go.

Efforts to attract foreign investors to convert plastics in the region have been mixed. Polymers Park in Industrial City Abu Dhabi has attracted a plastic grass producer and Saudi Arabia’s Sadara, the petrochemicals joint venture between Sabic and Dow, is pitching itself as a conversion hub.

Yesterday, plastics executives also envisioned a future in which more products were made with plastics that could be reused over and over.

Doctors are testing methods of printing body parts such as ears or noses using a combination of plastics and patients’ cells, and car manufacturers such as Mercedes have launched their first models that use plastic steering wheels, said Willem de Vos, chief executive of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

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