Shipping costs hamper gulf’s soaring petrochemical growth
Posted: 16 March 2005
The Arabian Gulf is set to become the world’s biggest user of sea transport, logistics services, and cargo-handling facilities as the region’s exports soar to 80 per cent of output.
By 2007, exports by chemical tanker are projected to top 28 million tons with a further 17 million tons in container shipments, a 40 percent growth on 2003.
These figures will come under the spotlight at a global conference on shipping for the petrochemical and plastics industries taking place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Doha, Qatar, next month.
More than 200 delegates from almost 30 countries are expected to attend MariChem Middle East 2005 which will focus on supply-chain planning and transport solutions.
The Gulf region is poised to overtake North America as the world’s leading centre for petrochemical-related production, but despite relatively low feedstock costs, growth is hampered by proportionately higher delivery charges.
Delivery accounts for 39 per cent of costs for plastics producers in the Gulf, the biggest single overhead apart from raw materials, and the MariChem conference on April 24-26 will explore ways of achieving more cost-effective delivery – especially in East Asian waters and along the China coast.
Speakers include Dr Anwar Al-Abdullah, director of the GCC energy department; HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Qatar’s second deputy premier and minister of energy and industry; Waleed al Dawood, Middle East vice-president of United Arab Shipping.
The conference is organised by the London-based Turret Group Ltd, and is the fourth in annual series following previous events in Dubai.
Turret Group chairman Richard Hease said: “This is an ideal opportunity for plastics and petrochemical companies to get together with shipping and logistic service providers so that they can develop ideas to cut costs. The importance of the issue is underlined by the response from so many participants from a host of different countries, all of whom share a common concern to find solutions to shipping and delivery costs.”
Posted by Editor Pipeline Magazine
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