Astra Polymers has provided the Middle East polymer industry with a new source for customer-specific additive pre-blends by installing a plant in Dammam in collaboration with Ciba Specialty Chemicals.

The dedicated facility has been built as an extension to Astra Polymers’ existing plant to make customer-specific blends (CSBs) using Ciba’s proprietary form-giving technology. Under the collaboration agreement, Astra Polymers will be responsible for all manufacturing processes while Ciba Specialty Chemicals will be responsible for the technology, technical support and sale of the CSBs. It will also work closely with regional customers to develop tailored blends that satisfy both their stabilisation and additive handling requirements.
Established in 1992, Astra Polymers specialises in the production of high-quality additive and colorant masterbatches and custom-made thermoplastic compounds for the plastics industry.
Its managing director, Mohammad N Al Utaibi, said Ciba Specialty was the strategic choice for his company. “With the added technical and marketing expertise, the company will be in an excellent position to meet the growing demands of the polymer industry in the Middle East,” he commented.
“Astra Polymers will position itself as the industry leader by highlighting its role as a driving force in the additives market and in technology development through the co-operation with Ciba,” added Al Utaibi, who is one of two partners of the company, the other being Sabih T Al Mansuri. The two Saudi businessmen are also the founders of the company.
“Ciba’s CSBs are multi-component packages that combine stabilisers and other additives used by polymer manufacturers into single, easy-to-handle blends, simplifying the incorporation process and improving worker hygiene and resin quality,” an Astra-Ciba statement said.
“This alliance with Astra Polymers will further strengthen Ciba’s presence in the Middle East. With the introduction and local production of CSBs, Ciba will be able to better support the polymer industry in this strategically important and fast-growing market,” said Germano Peverelli, Ciba’s regional vice president of Polymer Additives.
Astra could be further strengthening its presence in regional markets with the announcement that it plans to set up another plant in one of the Gulf states. Al Utaibi said at the end of 2003 that the proposed plant would be fully owned by Astra but that details would be announced later.
“Expansions in the long term, including subsidiaries and joint ventures such as the establishment of manufacturing facilities overseas, shall be prioritised while maintaining leadership through the initiation of product research and development,” said Al Utaibi.
He said the entry of Saudi Arabia into the World Trade Organisation would offer it opportunities to meet greater competition.
Over the past several years, Astra has been making black, white and colour masterbatches that have applications in injection and blow moulding, extrusion  (films, tapes, pipes, sheets, tubes and cables, among other things) and non-wovens.
Its production of additive masterbatches has applications in mouldings, extrusions and non-wovens. Astra compounds are used in furniture, computers and electronic goods. The company also manufactures BOPP masterbatches (used in BOPP and CPP films), fibre masterbatches (mono and multi-filaments) and liquid and paste masterbatches (pre-forms, calendaring and extrusion).
“Astra masterbatches need very little premixing with the natural resin, and since the dusty pigments are already homogeneously incorporated into the resin carrier, the risk of cross-contamination to other equipment or raw material is eliminated,” a company spokesman said while listing the advantages of Astra products.
“Due to the regular size of the pellets, Astra masterbatches can be metered at a pre-determined volume to the natural resin instead of weighing. With the development of efficient and economic automatic feeding and pre-mixing equipment, which is accurate, easy to operate and clean, using Astra products has become even easier.
“The optimum dispersion and incorporation of pigments and additives into the resin in Astra products gives them maximum colour strength and opacity, resulting in better pigment economy as well as maximum performance for the additives.
“Not only does Astra Polymers offer a diverse range of standard colours and additive masterbatches and compounds, it also provides tailor-made development of products to meet customer specifications or requirements in a demanding market.
“As well as producing a wide range of bright and vivid standard colours, Astra Polymers also provides its customers the very critical service of custom matching of demanding requirements.”
This custom matching, the spokesman said, helped fulfill the specific needs of polymers, their processing requirements, the requirements of exact shade and concentration, requirements of products and their applications, regulator requirements and customer deadlines.
The demand for high-performance colorant and additive masterbatches that are customised or application-specific is now routine while the demand for superior quality combination masterbatches with optimum dispersion is increasing, and product specifications have become more stringent.
One also observes that the use of additives such as heat and light stabilisers has grown while there is great interest in new additives with innovative product designs, making the role of masterbatch manufacturers such as Astra all the more challenging.
“Being the largest masterbatch producing company in the Middle East, Astra Polymers dominates the region’s market as far as masterbatch production and sales are concerned,” said Al Utaibi. Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Chamber of Commerce and Industry presented Astra Polymers with the “Export Award in 2002,” an event Al Utaibi said was testimony to its market sway in the region. One of the significant developments at Astra in recent years was the opening of an office in Dubai in the same year.
The company expects its current ISO 9002 quality management system to be upgraded to ISO 9001:2000 soon. “Many European and Far East plastic processors and converters prefer Astra Polymers due to its commitment to total customer satisfaction and quality system management,” said Al Utaibi. “On the other hand the development and growth of Astra’s ‘dust-free-system’ additives can be considered as one of the significant and major changes in the polyolefin market with major polyolefin producers working closely with Astra to develop dust-free systems specific to their needs.”
With rapid advancements in processing technologies and equipment, applications hitherto unimaginable in plastics are becoming commonplace today, said the company spokesman.
“This places a tremendous responsibility on us to meet the growing needs for sophisticated products with a pro-active R&D activity,” he said.
“Our increasing investments and successes have helped us gain the respect and trust of some of the most reputed names in the industry, locally and internationally.
“Whether it is high concentration commodity masterbatches or critical additives for extremely specialised applications such as fibres and non-wovens, Astra today has a product range to satisfy the most demanding of customers and requirements.”
Some of the raw materials are procured from Saudi Arabia itself, Sabic supplying polymers including polyethylene of low and high density and Cristal supplying titanium dioxide. Organic and inorganic pigments as well as additives are imported from various sources in Europe, Asia and the US.
Astra is one of the prominent participants in Gulf trade fairs including ArabPlast, held in Dubai, and the Saudi Printing, Plastics, Packaging and Petrochemicals Show in Riyadh.