UAE plastics products specialist Cosmoplast claims to have become the Gulf's first suitcase manufacturer.

Launching its new Herculite suitcases at the Hardware & Tools Expo in Dubai, the Sharjah based firm said it hoped to corner 40 per cent of the UAE's Dh15 million ($4 million) market for suitcases by the end of the year, the local Gulf News newspaper reported.

Herculite, designed in-house, is produced with German and US expertise at a new factory line manned by 140 workers. It will be sold initially only in the UAE, but later exported throughout the Gulf and Africa.

Cosmoplast has a production capacity of 8,000 suitcases a month, but this will be increased to meet demand.

With the new range, the company expects total production of plastic products this year to hit 60,000 tonnes from 54,000 tonnes the previous year, the report said.

Turnover is expected to increase to around $80 million.

Herculite is pitched at the medium end of the market.