Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) is venturing into production of glass containers at an estimated QR230mn cost for which it has inked an agreement with Germany's GLASSGLOBAL, a consulting firm specialised in providing technical and advisory services to the glass industry worldwide.

The design capacity of the project is 200 tonnes per day and it utilises local sand as the main raw material and will need natural gas to melt sand and other raw materials.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed recently on the sidelines of the Qatar German Business and Investment Forum. The MoU was signed by QIMC chief executive Abdul Rahman Abdullah al-Ansari and GLASSGLOBAL counterpart Andre Ommer.
The agreement aims to establish a general framework for technical co-operation between the two companies to complete the evaluation of the feasibility of a project to produce glass containers in Qatar and to provide technical advice to the project through reviewing and evaluating the technical offers from the equipment suppliers and then participate in supervising the implementation of the project though out commissioning and start-up.
The project has already obtained preliminary approvals and necessary official licences and currently work is being done to obtain the final approvals required for its implementation. The project is the result of co-operation between QIMC and the Gulf Glass Factory Company, which includes number of Qatari and foreign investors and businessmen.
The proposed project aims to produce glass bottles and various containers used in the packaging of food products (oils, pickles, jams, honey) and beverages (drinking water, soft drinks, juices and dairy).
This project is important and will serve the strategic vision of Qatar and contributes to the development of national economy and diversification of the industrial base in the country, according to statement.
The project, the first of its kind in Qatar, will meet the needs of the ongoing growth and development through the provision of glass containers to a number of downstream projects, especially food industries, besides supporting the national economy by exporting its products to the world markets. The project will provide jobs for about 140 staff from various disciplines.
QIMC has already cooperated with GLASSGLOBAL in number of studies and consulting services to evaluate both the glass containers and the float glass projects. These services included studying the markets for these products and the possibilities of exporting to number of Arab countries, neighbouring countries and other countries of the world.
GLASSGLOBAL also provided other technical services including reviewing and evaluating technical offers from equipment suppliers. In addition, QIMC commissioned the German firm to perform the necessary technical analysis on samples of local sand to determine the possibility of using it to produce glass through specialised technical laboratories for this purpose.
The results of these studies were positive and encouraging, which is expected to be reflected on the ground through number of projects in the near future, said a QIMC spokesman.

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