Rowad’s facility ... state of the art.
Rowad Plastic builds on steady growth
01 December 2007
Building on the steady growth in business levels over the past few years, Rowad National Plastic Company is now on an expansion drive that will see its diversified product portfolio as well as its geographical footprint grow even further.
The Riyadh-based manufacturer of engineering plastic products is set to commission what is claimed to be the first and the only geosynthetics manufacturing facility in the Middle East. The new SR200 million ($54 million) facility in Dammam will enable it to offer a broad range of products that caters to the requirements of the waste, wastewater, water management, mining, agriculture, aquaculture, power, and other industries.
These products, which meet the international specifications, include smooth and textured HDPE (high-density polyethylene) as well as smooth and textured LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene) geomembranes produced in thicknesses ranging from 0.5 mm to 3.0 mm and in a width of 7 m. The new plant has been set up in joint venture with the US-based Wasew and Golden Trade of Egypt.
In addition, the company intends to embark upon the production of BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) film and has acquired an additional 100,000 sq m area in Dammam for the new plant, which will have a manufacturing capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year.
“Business has been looking up for us over the past few years. We achieved sales worth SR71 million ($18.9 million) last year – up from the SR60 million ($16.03 million) in 2005 – which included 30 per cent of exports to Gulf countries. This year, our sales target is SR100 million-plus and we are looking at export figures of around 40 per cent of our output,” says Hussam Marawan, marketing executive of the company.
“Over the past couple of years, our export markets have expanded considerably with the opening of new international markets for our products in Turkey and Italy, and we now intend to pursue other new markets in Europe and in Africa. We are also keen to substitute imports with our locally-manufactured products in the GCC countries and the rest of the Middle East,” he adds.
The company’s exports are destined for more than 25 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. As part of an aggressive promotional and marketing strategy, the company has been participating in trade exhibitions – including international events such as K Exhibition (Düsseldorf – Germany) and Shanghai Plastic Fair (China) – alongside its distributors, and advertising in trade journals and directories across countries of the Middle East.
The local market too has been promising and Rowad expects to register a 30 per cent increase in total sales this year as compared to last year.
Marawan, however, laments about the increasing cost of raw materials. “We are currently facing a challenge in terms of increased raw material prices which we are not able to reflect in the pricing of our products as the consumer market is not ready to accept this increase. Since inferior quality products at cheaper prices are still available, we are struggling to compete against them while maintaining the superior quality of our products,” he states.
Rowad’s extensive product portfolio includes:
• Rowad polycarbonate sheets (RPCS): Application areas include roofing, skylight domes, canopies for gates, doors and windows (both interior and exterior), automobile components, insulation for electrical panels and greenhouses;
• Rowad acrylic sheets (RAS): used for decorative signwork and display, window glazing, automobile components, sanitary ware, light fixtures, skylight and partitions;
• Rowad ABS Sheets (RABSS): suitable for refrigerator inner liners, automotive components, internal doors, luggage, houseware, sanitary ware, cosmetic packaging and artificial stone mould;
• Rowad high-impact polystyrene sheets (HIPS): designed for refrigerator components, houseware and furniture, moulds for industrial stones, packaging for jewellery, watches and food;
• Rowad plastic recycling: Using state-of- the-art machinery with a capacity of 12,000 tonnes per year. Granules are basically injection grade and are useful in non-food contact applications such as flower/plants, winding reels and lids/closures;
• Rowad automotive battery components (RABC): suitable for the manufacture of a wide range of automobile batteries for light to medium to heavy vehicles;
• Rowad plastic pails: for paints, chemicals, lubricants and for industrial packaging; and
• Rowad geomembranes: comprising a broad array of geosynthetic products for the waste, wastewater, water management, mining, agriculture, aquaculture, power, and other industrial industries.
Its product range has been used in many prestigious projects across Saudi Arabia such as the Faisaliah Tower and Granada Mall in Riyadh as well as other Middle Eastern countries. Rowad is also a supplier to large companies such as Saudi Aramco, Binladin Contracting, Saudi Oger, Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) and Coca Cola, among others. In addition, the company is also in negotiations for new mega construction projects across the Middle East.
Rowad National Plastic Company – an affiliate of the National Industrialisation Company (NIC), Tasnee – was established in 1992, and launched production at its Riyadh factory in 1994. Since then, the company has also set up a manufacturing facility in Dammam,
Equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and a well-trained team, the company offers high-quality products at competitive prices and has an in-house laboratory run by qualified staff.
“Rowad is proud to offer its professional experience through high-technology, advanced products, which are of world-class quality and available at competitive prices. Since its inception, Rowad has worked closely with a group of leading manufacturing, development and consulting companies, both within and outside Saudi Arabia, in order to enhance its product range and help improve after-sales services, in line with its vision and objectives, which has made us among the most advanced plastic processors in the region,” says Marawan.
The company’s products are manufactured according to ISO-9001: 2000 quality assurance system and comply with American (ASTM), British (BSI), Japanese (JIS) and German (DIN) standards as well as Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation (Saso) standards and been subjected to testing by the UK-based Rapra Technologies (Certificate of testing) and Bayer Quality Test (Germany), he concludes.
- Rowad Plastic builds on steady growth
- Multi-layer pipes offer key benefits
- DRain storms market with quality
