Qadir Petrochemical Company in the southern Khuzestan Province plans to raise its output of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, to as much as 160,000 tons per year from the current 120,000 tons until March 2020, the company’s managing director said.
“The company produced 34,500 tons of PVC in the first quarter of the current fiscal year [started March 21], showing a rise of about 27,000 tons produced in last year’s corresponding period,” Amin Bayanak was also quoted as saying by NIPNA on Monday.
According to Bayanak, QPC’s annual PVC production in the last two years stood at 120,400 tons and 120,600 tons, respectively.
Stressing that only 20% of the world’s PVC companies reach sustainability in production, he noted that the company, located in Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Economic Zone, is one of a few companies with the ability to register such an output rate.
Bayanak pointed to dilapidated equipment and incomplete production chain as Qadir’s two major problems until the fiscal 2016-17, adding that to alleviate shortcomings and achieve profitability, about 90% of the company’s revenues were spent on renovating the complex and procuring modern equipment from foreign suppliers.
Underscoring that a vital process to complete the production chain is to produce vinyl chloride monomer, a component used to make PVC, the official said the company’s VCM output capacity amounts to 150,000 tons per annum, which can be converted to 135,000 tons of PVC.
Bayanak claimed that Qadir is the only Iranian PVC company that does not outsource its operations, underlining that the company has reached profitability while PVC’s price has fallen from $1,100 per ton in 2015-16 to $810 per ton last year.
Noting that the company aims to export about 50-60% of its total output, he said that due to structural changes in the country’s economic relations, Qadir has also changed its target markets.
“We were looking to export products to the Commonwealth of Independent States, India, Turkey, Afghanistan, African countries and Iraq. However, Qadir’s trade is currently focused on Iraq,” he said.
The QPC chief added that in the past two years, the company had been studying the economic feasibility of a project to launch a second phase of Qadir, the output of which would have been exported to Iraq.
"The company has carried out 11 eco-friendly plans in the last two years," he said.
The official also told reporters that the company is set to have its initial public offering in the near future.
Bayanak noted that with a market capitalization of 1.3 trillion rials (nearly $31 million), Qadir Petrochemical Company will be listed on Iran Fara Bourse.
The country's nominal output capacity stands at 62 million tons of petrochemicals per year, while actual production is expected to reach 60 million tons by March 2019.
NPC hopes to lift nominal output capacity to more than 120 million tons per annum by 2022, the last year of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
