Dammam · Saudi Arabia
Packing plywood, crates, pallets and container flooring for Dammam's petrochem belt
We manufacture the packing-grade and Okoume-faced plywood, heavy-duty crates and pallets that move oil, gas and petrochem cargo through the Eastern Province. Built at our Perumbavoor facilities, where our group has run wood operations since 1986, and shipped on a steady FCL lane out of Kochi to King Abdulaziz Port.
The industrial picture
A coast that runs on heavy iron
Dammam runs on heavy iron. The national oil-and-gas operator's headquarters sits inland at Dhahran, a major petrochemical complex anchors the coast an hour north at Jubail, and King Abdulaziz Port at Dammam handles the largest container throughput in the Arabian Gulf. Every valve skid, compressor module, pre-fabricated pipe spool and spare-parts kit moving through this belt needs wooden packaging that survives sea salt, 48°C summers and rough port handling. That is the conversation we have with packers and freight forwarders in the Eastern Province almost every week.
"Dammam" on shipping documents usually means one of four overlapping zones, and knowing which one a consignment is headed to changes the packing brief.
Dammam's industrial belts at a glance
- Dammam 2nd & 3rd Industrial Cities — metal fabrication, engineering workshops, MRO yards and electrical-panel builders. Plenty of mid-weight crates (200–2,000 kg) moving out as project cargo.
- Jubail Industrial City (Jubail 1 & 2) — the downstream petrochem majors and their feed lines. Heavy equipment, catalyst drums and exchanger bundles. Crates here are big, weatherproof and frequently heat-treatment stamped for re-export.
- Dhahran Techno Valley and the oilfield-services belt — drill bits, wireline tools and downhole equipment shipped in returnable plywood cases that handle multiple field trips.
- King Abdulaziz Port logistics zone — consolidators and 3PLs running container freight stations. Their daily diet is pallets, dunnage, container flooring for re-conditioning and packing-grade ply by the bundle.
The sectors driving plywood demand are upstream oil-and-gas services, downstream petrochem maintenance, power-transformer movements between operator and contractor yards, and a steady stream of food, beverage and white-goods crating tied to the broader Eastern Province consumer economy.
What we ship
Sheets, crates, pallets and flooring in one container
Most Dammam orders combine three lines in one container: sheet plywood for the buyer's own crate shop, ready-made crates for high-value modules, and pallets or container-flooring boards. A typical container looks like this.
| Item | Common spec to Dammam | Use case |
|---|---|---|
| Packing-grade plywood | 12 mm / 15 mm / 18 mm, 8×4 ft, MR or BWR glue | Crate panels, case linings, void fillers |
| Heavy-duty crates | 18 mm BWR shell on 75×75 mm hardwood frame, ISPM-15 heat-treated | Compressor skids, valve modules, transformer parts |
| Pallets | 1200×1000 mm and 1100×1100 mm; 4-way entry | General cargo, food & beverage, spare-parts kits |
| Container flooring boards | 28 mm shuttering ply, phenolic film-faced | Re-flooring 20'/40' boxes used by contractor fleets |
| Okoume-faced plywood | 9 mm / 12 mm / 18 mm BWR, light-coloured face | High-end exhibition crates, instrumentation packing |
Crate construction notes
For Jubail-bound petrochem cargo we default to an 18 mm BWR-glued plywood shell on a 75×75 mm or 100×100 mm hardwood frame, corner-braced, with skid runners sized for the buyer's forklift truck (usually 7 t–15 t at Eastern Province yards). Every batten and runner is ISPM-15 heat-treated and stamped at source, so the crate clears Saudi customs and is re-exportable to Bahrain, the UAE or onward to Europe without a second fumigation cycle.
Pallet sizes that actually move in Dammam
Eastern Province buyers split roughly between the 1200×1000 mm footprint (used by GCC retail and most consumer-goods distributors) and the 1100×1100 mm oilfield-friendly size that fits kit boxes and warehouse racks at contractor yards. We manufacture both as 4-way entry with a notched bottom deck so a hand pallet truck can pick from any side. A small detail, but the one buyers call out most often.
Logistics
Kochi to Dammam, lane and lead times
The sea distance from Cochin Port (Kochi) to King Abdulaziz Port (Dammam) via the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf is roughly 1,900 nautical miles. Direct services are rare; almost all FCL bookings transship at Jebel Ali (UAE), and increasingly at Khalifa Port (Abu Dhabi) or Hamad (Qatar).
- Port-to-port transit: typically 14–21 days from Cochin to Dammam, depending on the transshipment window at Jebel Ali.
- Door-to-port lead time from our Perumbavoor cluster: 3–4 days for inland trucking to Cochin Port plus customs and stuffing.
- Realistic total lead time: plan 4–5 weeks from PO to vessel arrival at Dammam, plus the buyer's customs clearance.
- Documentation: commercial invoice, packing list, Certificate of Origin, ISPM-15 declaration for wood packaging, and any SASO / SABER paperwork the buyer needs at the Saudi end.
One operational note: for oilfield-linked contractors we keep the ISPM-15 stamp visible on at least two faces of every crate and every pallet stringer. Inspectors at King Abdulaziz Port reject loads where the heat-treatment mark sits on a hidden surface, even when the paperwork is in order.
Choosing a grade
Which grade for which Dammam job?
A simple decision rule we share with first-time Dammam buyers.
- Standard MR packing-grade plywood — default for inland-handled cargo, short-cycle crates, dunnage and case linings. Lowest landed cost.
- BWR packing-grade plywood — the right call for anything moving by sea container to the humid Gulf coast, anything that may sit at a port yard, and any returnable case used by oilfield services that bounces between fields and contractor workshops.
- Okoume-faced BWR plywood — chosen by exhibition logistics, instrumentation packers and downstream petrochem buyers who want a clean light-coloured face on crates that go into client-facing locations. Higher price point; the face holds up better through repeat handling.
- Phenolic shuttering ply (film-faced) — used in Dammam mainly for container re-flooring and for crate floor panels under very heavy point loads such as skid-mounted compressors and transformers.
A note on terminology: Okoume in our catalogue is a face veneer applied to a BWR-glued plywood, not a separate grade. Specify the glue (MR or BWR), the face veneer (commercial, Okoume or Gurjan) and the thickness. Our team can match a sample if you are replacing an existing import line.
FAQ
Dammam buyer questions
Do you provide ISPM-15 certification with every shipment?
Yes. All wood packaging headed to Saudi Arabia is heat-treated and stamped at source, and the ISPM-15 declaration is included in the shipping documents. Stamps are placed on visible faces of crates, pallets and dunnage.
Can you ship LCL for trial orders?
For first-time Dammam buyers we routinely ship LCL through Jebel Ali consolidation for trial loads of 5–10 cbm. Once specs are locked, most buyers move to 20'/40' FCL on a recurring lane.
What is the minimum order quantity?
For plain sheet plywood, one 20' FCL (roughly 320–360 sheets of 18 mm depending on configuration) is the practical minimum. For ready-made crates and pallets we quote either by unit count or by the container, depending on what the project needs.
Get a quote
Get a Dammam quote
If you handle packing or freight for a Dammam, Jubail or Dhahran consignor and want a working quote — sheet ply, crates, pallets, container flooring or a mixed load — share thickness, glue, sizes, monthly volume and your delivery point. We price ex-Kochi (FOB) and CFR Dammam through the standard Jebel Ali transship, both in one PI. Request a quote with your spec sheet, or browse our resource hub for ISPM-15 notes, plywood grade guides and packing-case sizing tables before you write the RFQ. Our group has manufactured and supplied packing plywood out of Perumbavoor since 1986, and Dammam is one of the GCC lanes we plan around every month.