작성일자: 2013.10.13

작성자: 도하 무역관 Abhishek Pant, Ashwin Menon(ashwin@kotra.or.kr)

1. Introduction

 ○ We shall first briefly look at the general construction market outlook. Qatar is experiencing a construction boom, with more than $220bn-worth of projects planned or under way. The top 20 megaprojects planned and underway in the country have a combined value of $193.4bn. The biggest sectors within the top 20 are transport and construction, as Qatar gears up to host football’s Fifa World Cup in 2022. Till date, $22.7bn-worth of work has been awarded within these megaprojects (Table 6), highlighting that while Qatar has big plans, it has yet to execute on many of them. Transport ($9.87bn) and construction ($9.83bn) account for approximately 87 per cent of those deals awarded so far. The biggest project owner among the top 20 is Qatari Diar, which is behind the $45bn Lusail development, and the largest contractor by contract value is QDVC, working on the Qatar Integrated Rail project. The focus of Qatar has shifted more towards the Infrastructural projects. Thus, as construction is picking up pace, in the future we can expect more dewatering projects that shall increase the demand for PVC hoses.

     As Ponaflex mainly specializes in PVC hoses, the key applications that should be targeted are dewatering (water drainage from construction sites) and agricultural applications for the Qatar market. The main end users would be dewatering service providers or contractors and the dominating specification is industrial layflat PVC hoses. Contractors generally buy from a local agent as it is more convenient than directly procuring from a manufacturer abroad. Some contractors prefer buying in bulk, thus they may prefer direct liaison with manufacturers abroad. Building material suppliers are primarily distributing the smaller sizes of hoses used for gardening and agricultural applications.

     A few suppliers that were contacted for the purpose of this survey, had a sound awareness of Ponaflex, and some were already trading Ponaflex’s range by importing the products from UAE, and then providing them to dewatering contractors in Qatar’s market. Maples Safety - Qatar was one such trading company, whose owner is based in Qatar and is importing Ponaflex products from a Dubai (UAE) based trading company which he also owns.

2. Import Trend

□ Import Statistics

HS Code 39173900, PVC hose, tubes and pipe category import values for the past 3 years

Past 3 year import trend of HS Code 3917

– which is a broad category that includes all types of plastic based pipes, tubes and hoses

(Quantity disregarded)

 ○ The average import values of PVC hoses based on the past 3 years performance is US$ 3,458,111. Imports have clearly witnessed a massive decline since 2010. The import decline of PVC hoses from 2010~2012 has been approximately 71%. The main reasons attributing to the decline or lack of demand could be due to the slowdown in construction projects since 2011, as the government was slow to award them. Rate of decline in import values from 2010 to 2012 has been approximately 20% for the HS Code broad category HS 3917. Thus, 39173900 which is the category that Ponaflex mainly deals in has been performing approximately 51% lesser than the broad category HS 3917 in terms of value of imports between 2010 and 2012 (inclusive). But, construction is soaring in Qatar, with majority of the planned projects already under execution. Hence, as more dewatering contracts are awarded the demand for PVC pipes will go up again.

3. Competition Trend

Broad category HS Code 3917 Country Import Values considered only due to data insufficiency

from Qatar Statistics Authority on specific categories such as HS Code 39173900

 ○ UAE is dominating the position in this HS Code category as import value trends suggest a yearly rise in import figures. Most of the imports for pipes, hoses and tubes of plastic materials are predominantly coming from middle-eastern countries. This does not necessarily mean that they are manufactured in such countries, but we could infer that traders from the gulf region who have agency agreements with multi national brands, are re – exporting to Qatar. Imports from South Korea have been significantly less in comparison to the top performing countries. Traders also directly import from European manufacturers as well, and the prominent countries that are frequently imported from are Germany, U.S., and U.K.

     However in the PVC hose segment, South Korean, Chinese and Indian origin manufacturers emerged as leaders in the market. Ponaflex’s pipes are also currently used in this market as mentioned before. Other South Korean manufacturers include Kohiflex, Spinflex; Hong Kong origin brands include Sunny Hose Co. Ltd.; Indian origin brands include Dutron; Western origin brands include Eaton (U.S.). Overall perception of South Korean brands is highly positive in comparison to Chinese and Indian brands, as China and India are known to have a tendency to be inconsistent in supplying quality PVC hoses to the Qatar market as reported by trading companies.

4. Pricing

Price Ranges in Dollars for their respective sizes.

Note: These are the selling prices of trading companies to dewatering contractors.

 ○ The price ranges gathered above were reported mainly by traders. It is based on their estimations, and hence cannot be regarded as completely accurate. These are the selling prices to customers or end users of PVC hoses. The main type of hoses being referred to here is industrial layflat hoses and the sizes that are fast moving or requested frequently by the users are 6 inch and 8 inch.

5. Conclusion

 ○ Overall distributors for hydraulic hose categories and other industrial hose categories are far more in number than specialist distributors who buy bulk quantities and actively promote PVC hoses. Hence, large distributors for PVC hoses are fairly less, in comparison to other hose categories due to the small size of the market. Building material suppliers dealing in hoses usually buy small quantities but some building material suppliers have a project supply division that caters to larger markets. Ponaflex has a positive positioning and awareness in the market but pricing will be a key factor in determining their success. It is likely that traders might offer different prices for the same brand, thus diminishing the product’s value in terms of price which could affect the perception of Ponaflex’s offering given that already there are players trading its products in the local market. Hence, distributors should be carefully evaluated and selected.

Selected Megaprojects (For your reference)