Qatar Petrochemical Company’s low density polyethylene (LDPE) output will receive a big boost when its LDPE-3 plant comes on stream by the end of this year.

LDPE-3 is designed for a production capacity of 300,000 tonnes annually. When completed it will raise total output to more than 700,000 tonnes per year.

Qapco now produces more than 400,000 tonnes annually from its LDPE-1 and LDPE-2 plants.

Qapco said in a statement that construction on its LDPE-3 site reached 2.76 million man-hours with no lost-time accident. The company, a major global petrochemical producer, is also in the process of tendering for its ethylene plant revamp (EP-3) to raise production to 900,000 tonnes per year by mid-2012.

Beginning ethylene production in 1980, the company boosted the chemical’s production in stages until it reached 720,000 tonnes per year through its second expansion (EP-2) in 2007.

A Qapco subsidiary named Qatofin is Qatar’s first facility to produce linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), which is used for making plastic products including bags, toys and cable coverings. Qatofin’s shareholders are Qapco (63 per cent), Total Petrochemical of France (36 per cent) and Qatar Petroleum (1 per cent).