Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) is looking at doubling the capacity of two of its products - caustic soda and ethylene dichloride (EDC) - but a company official said the expansion would not take place anytime too soon.

Production manager Michel Hirsch said the company was in the process of carrying out a feasibility study, but that any expansion would not occur before 2007. QVC also produces vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) at its Mesaieed Industrial City plant, which became operational in 2001.

QVC’s first-half 2003 production was 159,635 tonnes of caustic soda, 96,657 tonnes of EDC and 128,857 tonnes of VCM. Production for full-year 2002 was 307,497 tonnes (caustic soda), 202,790 tonnes (EDC) and 227,679 tonnes (VCM).
Almost all of QVC’s production is exported with only two per cent of the caustic soda going to the domestic market.

The plant uses natural gas from Qatar Petroleum (QP), ethylene from Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) and salt from Jordan, Australia, Namibia and India. QVC also takes fuel gas from QP for its 130MW power plant. There are two caustic soda storage tanks with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes. The facilities include bulk storage for salt (50,000 tonnes) and an import conveyor system with a capacity of 1,200 tonnes per hour. Other storage facilities include an EDC tank (15,000 tonnes) and a refrigerated VCM tank (20,000 tonnes). The company has jetty facilities to cater to the ship loading of all its products in addition to off-loading facilities for receiving bulk salt shipments. QVC’s production facilities are integrated with those of Qapco to bring cost effectiveness in both companies’ operations.  Major customers for EDC and VCM are PVC manufacturers while the aluminium industry is the main customer for caustic soda.