Cabot Corporation has officially opened its black masterbatch manufacturing facility in Dubai’s  Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The plant has an initial production capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year with provision to expand to 75,000 tonnes in the future. Production is scheduled to commence in August 2010.

The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility includes the latest environmental and manufacturing technologies to ensure production of high-quality black masterbatches. Laboratories, administration offices, production and packaging are all located within the building, said a statement.

The Dubai plant allows Cabot to better meet the increasing demand for masterbatch in the Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. In recent years the Middle East has become a major producer of polyolefins and downstream compounds, currently producing approximately one-fifth of the world’s polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), it said.

Cabot vice president and general manager for the performance segment, Sean Keohane, said: “Within the Middle East there is already a strong demand for polyethylene and polypropylene compounds for use in building infrastructure for water supply, electricity, and telecommunications projects. These are key applications for black masterbatch. This new site offers significant quality and service advantages to Middle East producers who are global exporters of compounds.”

Senior vice president of global sales at Jafza, Adil Al Zarouni said: “Cabot Corporation has demonstrated excellence as a global leader in performance materials and we hope the new facility will help the company to continue the pursuit of its vision and effectively reach out to more businesses and markets across GCC, the Middle East and Asia.” – TradeArabia News Service