Company profi le

Royal Can Making Company unveils Iraq container glass plan

Iraq-based holding company Royal Can Making Company plans to set up a greenfield container glass factory with a capacity of about 1200 tons per day.

The plant, south of Baghdad, will be built over the next three years with a first flint furnace of 520 tons per day operational by Aug 2023.

Established in 1995 in Iraq, Royal Can Making Company investor is a holding company involved in several areas of business encompassing manufacturing, distribution, and marketing.

The company, owned by Mr Saad Kola, has diversified into several segments ranging from hospitality, pharma and FMCG.

Having a strong and efficient distribution network, knowledge of local market and resources which are one of its most important assets in its business in Iraq they fully own, manufacture, and distribute the following brands: Pioneer Pharma, Royal Can Making Co and Middle East for manufacturing packing Materials Co.

Founded in June 2012, Royal Can Making is based in the Sulaymaniyah -Kurdistan region of Iraq, while Middle East for Manufacturing Packing Materials was founded in November 2017 and is based in Baghdad, Iraq.

Both companies are specialist aluminium can manufacturers in Iraq, with two facilities, one in Sulaymaniyah and the second one in Baghdad. RCMC has a combined production capacity of 4 billion cans annually.

Having had a majority stake in can supply in Iraq, Mr Kola said the RCMC group sees a logical extension to its business and an opportunity to supply glass bottles to the domestic market.

He said: “Our clients have been asking for Glass. About 30% of our clients use it for beverages such as Pepsi and juices etc.

“There is currently no container glass factory today in Iraq. There are 40 milion people in Iraq so there are huge demands for glass, particularly now with the focus on the environment and efforts to minimise plastic consumption.

“Glass use is expected to grow more in future. Glass is currently imported into Iraq from neighbouring countries and transportation costs are extremely high, as well as customs costs.

“This has pushed us to accelerate the construction of the glass plant.”

The food industry is gaining importance from the Government and is expected to be one of the most important components of the national economy in the near future. The majority of glass manufactureed at the site will be for domestic use but the company may export in future.

Royal Can will have a new company for the glass business.The English name is AL-Malakeya Glass manufacturing company.

Royal Can has collaborated with German engineering company cm.project.ing as its

A greenfi eld container glass plant in Iraq will supply the domestic glass needs of the Middle Eastern country. Its owner has apointed cm.project.ing as EPCM contractor. Greg Morris spoke to Saad Kola* and Daniel Schippan**.

Engineering Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contractor. The EPCM contract was signed in August 2021.

With no established major container glass manufacturer in Iraq the supply chain gap and potential restrictions from government for importing container glass places an opportunity to establish a new production facility.

The current market needs about 1000 t/d of glass. However, the trend, the same as elsewhere in Europe and in the Middle East, is to move to nonreturnable glass.

About 90% of the bottles will be non-returnable. RCMC plans to supply about 90% of the domestic market demand for container bottles

The project owners have defi ned a target to sell 1000 tons per day of glass by 2024. RCMC has acquired about 520,500m2 of land near Baghdad. The location will have its independent power generation facility to supply electricity to the proposed glass plant and for future expansion.

The design capacity of the plant in the fi rst phase will be 520 tons/day through one oven.

A second furnace will be built in February 2024, which will increase production capacity to about 700 tons per day. The second furance is a 150tpd furance primarily catering the pharmacy market.

The third furnace with a capacity of about 520tpd is scheduled to go in production in Jan 2026. This is a fl int and green furnace.

� Saad Kola, owner of Royal Can Making Co and Daniel Schippan, Managing partner of cm.project.ing, signed an EPCM last August.

The facility will have best available technology (BAT) 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. A 40,000m2 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 site and the layout are designed to further expand the factory into three additional furnaces (totaling up to six furnaces). CMP has been given the direction to plan the utilities and infrastructure to plan for future expansion.

In addition, the industrial complex is planned for future expansion of a steel factory and a power generation plant to generate power up to 150MW is also foreseen in the layout.

Mr Kola said the security situation in Iraq is now stable. The company has used overseas companies from Europe and the USA to install equipment at its can making sites in the past. In addition it will build a modern residential building on the site of the glass plant for 250 overseas suppliers to stay in during the construction phase.

It means suppliers will not have to be hosted in hotels and be required to use transportation every day to reach the site.

The EPCM contract was signed between RCMC and CMP in Aug 2021. The concept engineering is completed and currently the detail civil and 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.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the fi rst furnace is planned for June 2022. �

* Owner, Royal Can Making Company, Iraq www.royalcanco.com **Managing Partner, cm.project.ing, Aachen, Germany www.cmprojecting.de