BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB
DOHA: Ahli Bank QSC, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) and KLJ Organic Limited of India yesterday singed an agreement for financing KLJ Organic Qatar WLL, a $100m chemical manufacturing complex at Mesaieed Industrial City (MIC) in Qatar.
The ambitious company will manufacture Chlorinated Paraffin Wax (CPW), along with caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, calcium chloride and sodium hypochlorite as by-products and co-products.
According to a senior official of the company, this is the first and largest investment by an Indian company in Qatar’s industrial sector.
The chemical complex will be the largest of its kind in the world with a capacity to produce over 56,000 tonnes per year of CPW. The facility would take advantage of the inexpensive power available to manufacture its own chlorine, which is a required chemical for the CPW manufacturing process.
CPW is used primarily as a chemical in the manufacture of PVC pipes, cables, lubricants, and paints.
The agreement was signed by Mahmoud Malkawi, Acting CEO of Ahli Bank, Abdul Rahman Al Ansari, CEO of QIMC and Hemant Jain, Director of KLJ. The signing ceremony was also attended by a number of officials from both the organisations.
Asked, why Qatar was chosen as an investment destination, Hemant Jain, who is also the Vice-Chairman of KLJ Organic Qatar WLL (KLJQ), said: “We had gone to Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait before short listing Qatar. But we found a right partner here which is very important for any project. We found QIMC is not an owner-driven company but a professionally-run organization. So this is the main reason why we are here.”
He added: “We also found Qatar as less bureaucratic than other GCC countries.”
KLJQ is a 60:40 joint venture between QIMC and KLJ Organic Limited of India respectively. Initially the mechanical completion and commissioning was targeted for the first quarter of 2013, but Hemant told this newspaper that the production will commence from the first quarter of 2014.
On the occasion, Malkawi added: “This agreement with KLJQ will go a long way in providing a long-term partnership between us and is a strong sign of the confidence QIMC and KLJ has reposed in us.
AI Ansari said: “Ahli Bank has collaborated positively in our expansion plan and we hope our relationship will grow further in the years to come. The strategy of QIMC is derived mainly from its objectives to participate in the general development of the industrial sector of Qatar.”
Hemant added: “We are proud to be the first Indian Company to invest in the Industrial sector of Qatar. We would like to acknowledge the support of Ahli Bank and of our partners QIMC, without their support this project would not have been possible.”
The Peninsula
