Wim Roels: Value creation through innovative solutions

Getting into the right path to provide innovative solutions has taken Borouge into a journey outside the Middle East region. The company has been committed to bring value creating plastics solutions in support of dynamic and emerging industries. At Arabplast 2013, Borouge once again exhibited its broad portfolio aimed at leading growth industries indicating the significant strides the company have achieved in this industry.

International Plastics News – Middle East and Africa (IRNEA) got the chance to talk to Mr. Wim Roels, Chief Executive Officer of Borouge’s Marketing and Sales Company, on the company’s growing range of innovative plastics solutions and how these would impact the industries the company serves.

IRNEA: At this year’s Arabplast, Borouge exhibited its wide portfolio of innovative plastics solutionsfor infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging. What are the specific product lines to address the demand of these dynamic sectors?

Mr. Roels: Using the latest technologies in the plastics industry, Borouge provides a differentiated range of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) innovative plastics solutions for infrastructure applications.

At Arabplast 2013, we showcased a variety of our innovative plastics solutions, including samples of different sizes of PE100 pipes for industrial infrastructure applications, as well as PE and PP films and agriculture and geomembrane film rolls. In addition, the stand also included samples of thin wall packaging caps and closures and machinery demonstrations of blown film and injection moulding, samples of low, medium and high voltage power cables made from Borouge’s cross-linkable polyethylene (XLPE) using the Borlink? technology, as well as exterior and interior body parts for automotives.

We also demonstrated our innovative solutions for large diameter pipelines for industrial projects which support our customers, design consultants and pipe producers in the Middle East.

We highlighted our pioneering Water for the World? programme which contributes to conserving the Earth’s most valuable resource and addresses the global challenge of securing fresh water and proper sanitation for the global community. Since we launched the programme with Borealis in 2007, some 300,000 people all over the world have benefited from it by helping them in replacing their water distribution networks in partnership with local Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and customers.

IRNEA: What are the specific trends in the automotive infrastructure and advanced packaging markets that Borouge aims to address through these solutions?

Mr. Roels: In the automotive sector, we have Xmod? GB306SAFC, a polypropylene (PP) compound that is designed to replace PA6 in air-intake manifolds and generated strong interest due to its role in weight saving and cost reduction. Our PP compounds are technically versatile and offer more cost effective solutions and weight saving benefits when compared to traditional engineered polymers such as PA. They make a positive contribution to meet the industry’s manufacturing and regulatory challenges and support efforts for lower fuel consumption. We demonstrate in this sector how our PP materials are the engineering plastics of the future.

In advanced packaging,Borouge is leading the way in delivering high value PE/PP solutions. Our plastics are used for: reusable shopping bags to reduce plastics as waste to the environment; assured sustainable food packaging and safety in packed food; ensuring food content are constantly kept fresh; geomembrane for water containment and distribution of large amounts in canals and greenhouse filmNike