The industrial picture

A single-purpose hydrocarbon export campus

Ras Laffan Industrial City sits roughly 80 km north of Doha and runs one of the world's largest single-site LNG export complexes. It is not a generic free zone. It is a single-purpose hydrocarbon campus built around the offshore gas field to the north, and its packaging needs flow directly from that. Behind every LNG train, sulphur berth, gas-to-liquids unit and helium plant is a steady flow of process equipment that has to be crated, blocked, braced and floated across an ocean. That recurring packaging demand is exactly the work our operation is built around.

Sectors that drive plywood demand here

• LNG mega-trains and field expansion — the legacy liquefaction trains plus the ongoing North Field expansion projects. Heat exchangers, cold boxes, compressor internals, cryogenic spools and valve skids all arrive and leave crated.
• Gas-to-liquids and petrochemicals — the city's GTL units and petrochemical complex push a constant repair-and-return flow of catalyst drums, reactor internals and pump assemblies.
• Helium plants and sulphur handling — the helium recovery plants and the sulphur loading berth keep specialist EPC contractors and equipment makers cycling spares through the port.
• Port and marine services — Ras Laffan Port handles LNG carriers, LPG, condensate and bulk sulphur. Marine spares, propeller assemblies and turbocharger cores all travel in custom crates.
• Engineering, fabrication and modular yards — fabricators serving the city need export-grade crating for pre-assembled modules, skids and structural-steel sub-assemblies.

The common thread: high-value, heavy, often temperature- or shock-sensitive cargo moving on tight EPC schedules. Packaging failure here is not a stationery issue. It is a project-delay issue.

What we ship

Four product families for Ras Laffan buyers

From Kochi we serve Ras Laffan buyers across four product families. Each one is matched to a specific job on the LNG and petrochemical side.

Packing-grade plywood (commercial and rubberwood)

Our workhorse for case-makers and EPC packaging contractors. We manufacture standard thicknesses in active production at 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 18 mm in the 8'x4' format. The 12 mm and 18 mm sheets are the most commonly drawn for side panels and base decks on heavy-equipment crates. We can hold tighter glue-line specs on request when a buyer needs a crate that survives sea fog, ambient sulphur humidity and on-site lay-down without delaminating.

Okoume-faced plywood

Okoume is a premium face-veneer option on our MR-Packing and BWR grades, not a separate grade. It gives a cleaner, lighter face and dimensional stability that crating contractors prefer for high-value process equipment — cryogenic spools, instrumentation skids, calibration-sensitive analyzers — where appearance, weight saving and consistent screw retention matter.

Export crates and cases

For buyers who do not run an in-house carpentry shop, we build finished crates and cases to ISPM-15 compliance: cleat-and-batten construction, heat-treated softwood framing, plywood skins and stencilled IPPC marks. Typical formats are open crates for structural steel, closed cases for instrumentation, and tri-wall cases for vibration-sensitive process equipment.

Pallets and container flooring

• Pallets — standard four-way 1200x1000 mm and 1200x800 mm, plus custom heavy-duty pallets up to 3,000 kg static load for compressor internals and valve assemblies.
• Container flooring and dunnage plywood — 18 mm and above for one-way container retrofits, plus cut-to-size dunnage panels for blocking-and-bracing inside open-top and flat-rack containers.

Logistics

Kochi to Ras Laffan by sea

The shipping economics here are specific. Kochi (Cochin Port and Vallarpadam ICTT) to Hamad Port or directly to Ras Laffan Port sits at roughly 1,800 nautical miles across the Arabian Sea. Typical transit is 9 to 14 days on direct services, longer on transhipment via Jebel Ali or Salalah. We move material in three ways:

• FCL from Cochin (Vallarpadam) to Hamad Port — the standard route for full crate-set orders or bulk plywood lifts. 20' and 40' HC containers are loaded at our consolidation yard, sealed and routed direct.
• FCL direct to Ras Laffan Port — where the buyer has port access and is moving against a project import licence; this cuts the inland leg from Hamad to Ras Laffan (~150 km).
• LCL consolidation — for top-up plywood orders or smaller crate batches feeding an EPC's packing line. Slower, but useful for buyers running just-in-time crate production.

For ISPM-15 cargo, heat treatment and stencilling are completed in-yard before container stuffing, so the consignment lands in Qatar audit-ready and clears Hamad Port without packaging hold-ups.

Choosing a grade

Which plywood for which Ras Laffan job

A practical cheat-sheet for buyers specifying material for the city's typical loads:

Okoume is not a default. It is the right call when face quality, weight and stability earn back the premium. Commercial packing grade covers the bulk of the volume.

FAQ

Common questions from Ras Laffan buyers

Do you supply ISPM-15 crates ready for Qatari customs?

Yes. Crates ship with heat-treated softwood framing, IPPC stencils and the supporting treatment certificate, so the consignment clears Hamad Port without packaging hold-ups.

Can you build to an EPC's drawing pack?

Yes. Send dimensioned case drawings with weight, centre of gravity and lifting-point requirements and we will quote against the drawing. We can also reverse-engineer from a sample crate.

What is the smallest order that makes sense to ship from Kochi?

One 20' container of crates or sheets is the practical floor for FCL. Below that, LCL consolidation via Jebel Ali is workable but adds 5–7 days and a per-CBM premium. Buyers running monthly off-take usually find FCL more economical from the third shipment onward.

Get a quote

Send us your dimensions and off-take

Our group has manufactured plywood out of Perumbavoor since 1986, and CWI Pvt Ltd is the export arm that carries our group's four-decade manufacturing experience into projects across the GCC. If you are running a packaging line in Ras Laffan, Al Khor or anywhere on the Qatari LNG belt, send us your dimensions, monthly off-take and delivery point and we will build a specification and a per-CBM landed cost. Request a quote with your project details, or browse the resource hub for plywood specs, ISPM-15 notes and crate-construction guides.