Oman's Octal Petrochemical said Monday it has completed the second phase of its polyethylene terephthalate expansion project in Salalah, bringing the PET output from the site to 920,000 mt/year.
Phase 2 was completed within budget and on time, it said, noting the ramp-up process will allow the PET complex to achieve full capacity of 927,000 mt/year in August.
The project was designed to add a further 527,000 mt/year of PET bottle-grade resins on top of the site's existing capacity of 400,000 mt/year.
The project, once fully on stream, is expected to bring Octal's sales to $1.3 billion by the fiscal year ending March 2013, up from the $599 million in the previous year, the company said in a statement.
Octal said the project will produce the world's first direct-to-sheet polyester sheet, which it will sell under the DPET brand. It said the jump in sales will be achieved by increasing capacity and "converting new packaging applications to DPET sheet, including the packaging of dates, yogurt, meat and cheese."
Octal's PET production site is located in the port city of Salalah on the southern coast of Oman. It has so far absorbed $1.5 billion in investments from Octal.
