Iraq based, holding company Royal Can Making Company plans to set up a new container glass factory with a capacity of about 1150 tons per day.
The design capacity of the plant in the first phase will be 520 tons/day through one. A second furnace will be built in February 2024 in the second phase of the project, which will raise the production capacity to about 700 tons per day. The third furnace is expected for August 2024 with an initial capacity of 450 tpd. The first 2 furnaces will be for flint and pharmacy bottles, while the third furnace will be dedicated to green and amber bottles.
In order to realize the target capacity, the Royal Can has acquired about 520,500 square meters near Baghdad. The location will have its independent power generation facility to supply electricity to the proposed glass plant and for future expansion.
The modern facility will have the best available technology (BAT) and proven technology from the industry. The raw material sourcing and sand processing plant is being considered to be built inside the facility to ensure security of raw materials.
Given the ambitious and challenging target laid out by Royal Can, they have collaborated with a leading German engineering firm cm.project.ing GmbH as an Engineering Procurement and Construction management contractor. The EPCM contract was signed in August 2021.
The site and the layout are designed to further expand the factory into 3 additional furnaces (totaling up to 6 furnaces). CMP has been given the direction to plan the utilities and infrastructure to plan for future expansion.
A 40.000 sq m warehouse and a residential building to accommodate about 400 employees is also considered on the plot. A decoration line is also considered as most of the container bottles sold in the region comes with decoration.
The concept engineering is completed and currently the detail civil & architectural engineering is under progress at CMP HQ. The tenders for the core technology equipment are already out and the offers are being reviewed with leading equipment suppliers.
By Q1 of 2022, all core technology contracting, and civil contractor (GC) will be completed.
The permission process is ongoing with the local authorities and the groundbreaking ceremony for the first furnace is planned for May 2022.
With the current improvement in the political stability and security situation, the company´s sentiment is positive, especially as there is no major container glass manufacturer in Iraq there is a considerable supply chain gap and potential restrictions from government for importing container glass places an opportunity to establish this new container glass facility.
The current Iraqi market needs about 1000 t/day of glass. However, the trend like elsewhere in Europe and in the Middle East, is to move to non-returnable glass. About 90% of the bottle will be non-returnable. The investor plans to supply about 90% of the local market demand for container bottles.
Having had a majority stake in can supply in Iraq, Royal Can Making Company (RCMC) group see a logical extension to their business, and an opportunity, to supply glass bottles to the local market. The food industry is gaining special importance from the Government and is expected to be one of the most important components of the national economy in the near future.
The project will satisfy the local needs of glass containers, which are currently imported from outside sources at high costs, in addition to exporting some of its products to neighboring markets.
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