Sri Lanka is to become a major marketing centre of petrochemicals for the Asian region under an ambitious marketing expansion plan of top international petrochemical supplier, Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO).
The company plans to make use of the full potential of the strategic location of the island in the Indian Ocean in marketing low-density polyethylene (LDPE) products among countries in the region, said Dr. Mohd Yousef Al-Mulla, General Manager and Board Director of QAPCO in an interview with Business Times in Colombo on Saturday, December 18.
![](../images/director.jpg) |
Picture shows Dr Mohd Yousef Al-Mulla speaking at the opening of the QAPCO Colombo office on December 18. |
He revealed that QAPCO’s decision to open its representative office at World Trade Centre in Colombo was aimed at consolidating the company’s position a leading exporter of LDPE products to Sri Lanka and to other countries in the region. The company has been supplying Sri Lanka LDPE products for more than 20 years, he added. He revealed that QAPCO has a 55% market share in Sri Lanka's LDPE market .
It also represents another milestone in QAPCO''s history, showcasing QAPCO''s leadership and role model status in customer service excellence. "Our self operated offices are dedicated to identifying the needs of our customers in each of the strategic markets. It is pertinent to mention that QAPCO''s global marketing network comprises 28 self operated offices, of which Sri Lanka is now one and six regional warehouses," Dr. Mohd Yousef Al-Mulla said.
QAPCO''s global marketing network comprises 28 self operated offices, of which Sri Lanka is now one and six regional warehouses." QAPCO has four offices each in China ((Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou) and India (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Ahmadabad), two in Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan and one each in Egypt, Syria, UAE, Lebanon, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Yemen, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Philippines, Morocco and Turkey as well as an agent network to serve QAPCO''s customers, he added.
Dr Al-Muallo noted that, "In a drive to become local suppliers in markets of strategic importance, QAPCO has been active in establishing regional warehouses in Syria, Egypt, Tripoli (Lebanon) ,Guangzhou, Shanghai and Qingdao in greater China.” He also emphasized the importance of the Sri Lankan market to QAPCO which has been supplying its LDPE products to a large number of Sri Lankan customers for over twenty years.
"We sell LDPE to over 4,500 customers in over 85 countries,” he said adding that such global exposure was designed to support and complement the expansion plans of QAPCO, where QATOFIN, a subsidiary of QAPCO with 450 KMT per annum of LDPE, has already commissioned the QAPCO LDPE3 line increasing capacity to 700 KMT per annum by end of 2011. |