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President and CEO of the Kuwait-based petrochemical company Hamad Al-Terkait
By Hani Al-Awadh (with photos) DUBAI, April 6 (KUNA) -- EQUATE's profits for 2011 are expected to be better than its 2010 USD 880 million in net profit, President and CEO of the Kuwait-based petrochemical company Hamad Al-Terkait said Wednesday.
"There is a great deal of optimism when it comes to petrochemical market, with many positive factors in place, including growing demand and the element of supply not surpassing it," Al-Terkait told KUNA.
As for the expansion of petrochemicals industry in Kuwait in comparison to Saudi Arabia, he said "we suffer some kind of slowness in terms of making economically-viable decisions due to political factors that sometimes influence the economic process.
"Avoiding such fact provided Saudi manufacturers with resilience needed. That, and the huge amount of support they receive," Al-Terkait said on the sidelines of the EQUATE-sponsored Second Gulf Plastics Summit here. The Summit kicked off April 4 and is concluding later today.
"Supporting plastic manufacturers and other transformational industries in Kuwait is of EQUATE's utmost strategic objectives. Since 1997, the company contributed in increasing the number of plastic plants in Kuwait from less than 20 to almost 40.
"Despite the fact that some 90 percent of EQUATE products are exported, yet the company is still giving utmost priority to local factories in terms of products and technical support needed," he noted.
The Summit is part of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association's (GPCA), as it covers all that is related to the petrochemicals industry and its subsidies, as well as it deals with vocational and industrial safety, logistic shipping of petrochemical products and is pursuing an anti-dumping policy among other endeavors, Al-Terkait pointed out.
Established in 1995, EQUATE is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC).
Commencing production in 1997, EQUATE is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products, which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. (end) hny.hb KUNA 061345 Apr 11NNNN