Qatar Primary Materials Co (QPMC) on Saturday announced that its ports in Mesaieed have received about half a million tons of gabbro from Oman over the past few days.
CEO of QPMC Essa al Hammadi said the shipments of gabbro and limestone are being received by the company from Oman as part of its strategy since 2014 to diversify sources of construction materials imports.
Al Hammadi said in a statement that the company is pursuing a strategy of diversifying the sources of importing primary materials for construction purpose, which was previously imported only from Fujairah. The company has succeeded in diversifying these sources and import about 1 million tonnes of gabbro from Oman since 2016.
The shipments made over the past few days came after a visit by a large Qatari delegation of businessmen and representatives of Qatari companies to Oman, he said, referring to the coordination between Qatari private sector and QPMC to receive gabbro shipments at Mesaieed Port after signing a number of agreements between Qatari private sector companies and their counterparts in Oman to supply material.
The coming days will witness more cooperation between the two sides, he added, praising the Qatari business sector for its high level of awareness, efficiency, diversity and ability to adapt to exceptional circumstances and overcome them.
Al Hammadi said the other strategy QPMC is working on is to increase the strategic stock of gabbro and limestone, noting that the company has succeeded to stock about 14 million tonnes of materials of which 11 million tonnes are gabbro and the rest 3 million tonnes are limestone.
This stock covers the needs of Qatar for more than a year, he stressed, adding that there is currently an abundance of soft and washed sand, which also covers all the needs of current and future projects in private and governmental sectors.
In this context, Al Hammadi said there is availability of all the raw materials required by major projects like Qatar Rail and Qatar World Cup projects in addition to private sector projects, pointing out that the average monthly sales of building materials range from 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes, which means that the current stock will cover the needs of the market for more than a year.