BAHRAIN’S Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) plans to strengthen its ties with China where it exports most of its methanol. 

The company also makes ammonia and urea. The company’s president, Dr Abdulrhman Jawahery, said after meeting a visiting Chinese delegation: “China is a very attractive marketing and investment destination not only for the petrochemical industry, but for industrial and commercial activities as well.”

Dr Jawahery said GPIC enjoyed a very good reputation in the Chinese market and that several past visits of Chinese trade teams to the plant helped expand cooperation.

In 2013 GPIC had a combined production of 1.59 million tonnes of ammonia, urea and methanol and exported around 1.19 million tonnes. China maintained its position as the biggest importer of GPIC methanol with a share of 57 per cent of a total of 440,846 tonnes of the product it exported.

The US continued to be the biggest importer of GPIC urea, accounting for 52 per cent of a total of 680,627 tonnes shipped overseas. Exports of Ammonia were 70,874 tonnes, of which Taiwan accounted for 28 per cent, Australia 19 per cent, India 18 per cent and China and South Korea 16 per cent each.

Meanwhile, the company reached the milestone of 10 million tonnes of granular urea since it first began producing it in 1998.

To mark the occasion, Dr Jawahery presented Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) fertiliser marketing manager Sulaiman Al AbdulSalam with an appreciation trophy in recognition of the company’s contribution in marketing and exporting GPIC’s granular urea.

PIC is one of the main shareholders of GPIC and the sole marketer for GPIC’s ammonia and granular urea products.

Over the years, GPIC exported a total of 4.7 million tonnes of granular urea to North America, making it the highest export market at 49 per cent, followed by Oceania 21 per cent and Far East 14 per cent.