Wim Roels, CEO of the marketing arm of Borouge, on how innovative pipeline solutions are helping Borouge penetrate new global markets
After cementing its position as a regional leader of the production of polyolefins through its production company, Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge), is delivering innovative plastics solutions to its clients based in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and has established Borouge’s Marketing and Sales Company, based in Singapore.
“The marketing arm of Borouge focuses on value creation and delivering differentiated products to our clients, and the delivery of products that have added value, instead of following the commodity approach,” says Wim Roels, the chief executive officer of Borouge’s Marketing and Sales Company, which has its headquarters in Singapore.
“We work close to our customers and we understand their needs to help them grow their business. That all happens through the sales and marketing company,” he adds.
The company sells mainly polyolefins products, and targets the Middle East, Asian and African markets. “We believe that there is a significant growth opportunity for polyolefins.” He says.
“We cover mainly the Middle East, Africa, Indian sub-continent, Greater China, Australia and New Zealand. Our part owner Borealis covers the rest regions of the world, including Turkey and EU,” Roels adds.
In the Middle East, Borouge also markets its products in Saudi Arabia which contains several local producers. “KSA is a very important market for us. We are also seeking opportunities there and ways to how can we strengthen our presence there,” he reveals.
Amid stiff competition between polyolefins producers in the region, Borouge’s Marketing and Sales Company adopts a new approach to better serve its clients.
“Currently we are developing high quality differentiated products to help our customers, including our innovative solutions for pipe systems which are very significant here in the Middle East,” Roels says.
The new pipe system solution that Borouge develops is highly stress crack resistant BorSafe polyethylene (PE100) and includes a long term guarantee. “When we supply pipe solutions to our clients we guarantee that this product will last for 50 years and more,” Roels says.
This type of pipe systems is cost effective and very practical when for a wide variety of uses, including the infrastructure and energy sectors. “In cities people don’t want to dig up the whole city to put pipes systems, so we have developed a system that allows users to pull the new pipe through the old one.
So, if you have a steel pipe, you can just pull the new pipe through the existing one without digging the whole city,” Roels explains. He expects demand on innovative products like this to soar.
“As it is a cost effective system, demand is expected to grow as it opens quite a few new opportunities including cost efficiency for the installation of new pipes without disturbing the whole city,” he says. “It is a very attractive way to improve the quality of a city’s piping systems.”
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Among the company’s recent innovations is the largest pipe in the Middle East . “One of our iconic innovation products is the largest polypropylene pipe with a very large diameter of three metres,” says Roels. “It is produced in Abu Dhabi by one of our valued customers, Union Pipe, and is currently being used for the water in-take for the new Takreer refinery,” Roels adds.
“Actually, there are many technologies used to produce and weld these type of pipes, and all these technologies have been developed here in the Middle East between Borouge, the customer and the engineering companies installing the pipe,” he reveals.
As product markets change, the marketing arm of Borouge expects to face several challenges mainly related to growth.
“The biggest challenge our company facing is to grow. We have an ambitious plan to expand in the market and our production capacity is expected to more than double by 2013,” he says. “In 2008, we were 200 people, in 2011 we were 540 employees, this year about 800, and in 2014 we will be more than 1000 people in marketing and sales,” Roels explains.
“They key challenge is to grow from a medium-sized to a global sized supplier with the organisation in place that can deliver, stay loyal and ambitious to supply its clients,” Roels says.
In India, some GCC companies were subject to protective measurement, Borouge says that it avoids anti dumping duties (ADD) as it has a strict pricing and local investment policy.
“We are pricing our products in line with the value we create. In this respect, we don’t get into discussions about dumping and anti dumping, because that is not our philosophy,” Roels says. “Our philosophy is to float a price based on the value created for our customers,” Roels notes.
To meet the growth challenge, the company has already established offices in China, India and Singapore as well as Lebanon, New Zealand and Australia Added to challenges related to growth, the company is focused on global challenges.
“When developing our business model, and developing our innovation, we generally look at global challenges like reducing air emissions, ensuring safe power supplies, protecting food, and accessing clean water and sanitation.
We try to find solutions to all these challenges,” Roels added. “To tackle these issues, for example, every kilogram of polypropylene used instead of metal on a car reduces fuel consumption, consumes less natural resources, and produces less emission; it is a real contribution to sustainability.”
Recently, environmental agencies in the UAE and GCC countries launched a campaign against packaging, claiming that plastics used for packaging is non-degradable, and has a negative impact on environment.
“When we talk about this issue, we talk not only about the need to change human behavior towards littering but also about the need for innovative protective packaging. Recent studies show that about 50% of the food which is not packed properly never reaches consumers.
If there are 7bn people in this planet, feeding these people is a top priority,” Roels says. “So, to be able to do that, enhanced packaging solutions are a requirement, as we will be able to reduce the impact on the society if we waste food between the farms and the fork.
“These are very solid arguments why packaging is an added value and contributing to sustainability,” Roels adds.
To face all these challenges, and to offer more products to its clients, Borouge is investing in a $70 million innovation centre in Abu Dhabi. The centre is set to host more than 50 international researchers and engineers.
“The centre will focus on innovations for compounding as well as innovative plastics solutions for the infrastructure , automotive and advanced packaging industries in close cooperation and partnership with Borouge’s customers throughout the value chain, ensuring that specific customer requirements are met,” Roels concludes.
