At 40 kg, the per capita consumption rate of plastics in Saudi Arabia is higher than that of a number of Asian countries and more than double that of the Middle East as a whole.

Packaging requirements for Saudi Arabia?¡¥s thriving food & beverage sector and consumer & household goods, strong foreign demand, and a flurry of construction activity fuelled by a growing, increasingly well-off population are all driving growth in the kingdom?¡¥s plastics industry ¡§C second only to the oil and gas industry in size. Multi-billion-dollar investments in 360 plastics factories have further fanned plastics sector activity. As plastics steadily replace traditional materials like metal and wood, demand is sprouting everywhere: Food & beverage packaging, construction materials, household and consumer goods, and furniture are all increasingly relying on plastics.

An ambitious $35 billion Saudi public sector infrastructure expansion plan has provided yet more impetus.

A perfect plastics-industry-driving framework is offered by the cheap raw materials and energy over which Saudi Arabia, the world?¡¥s leading oil producer, presides.

The tremendous expansion of Saudi Arabia?¡¥s plastics sector has also been driven by the country?¡¥s economic diversification program ¡§C an attempt to reduce reliance on oil. A turning point came in 1987 when the government-owned Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) began producing plastic resins for the country?¡¥s 75 plastics plants. Today the country counts more than 580 plastics downstream units.

Saudi Arabia?¡¥s rapid plastics sector growth, coupled with a host of government investor-friendly initiatives, including the encouragement of joint Saudi-foreign ventures, the reduction of corporate tax for foreign companies, full foreign ownership rights, and generous subsidies and finance plans, has opened up a wealth of business opportunities for plastics manufacturers, traders and agents from across the region and the world.