The industrial picture

Three Dhofar zones, three packaging profiles

Salalah is one of the most under-rated industrial nodes on the Arabian Sea. The Port of Salalah handles transhipment volumes that put it inside the world's top thirty container ports, the Salalah Free Zone sits directly behind the quay, and Raysut Industrial Estate keeps adding downstream fabrication units. All of it generates one consistent material need: dense, predictable, compliant wooden packaging that survives monsoon humidity from June to September and bone-dry heat the rest of the year. Three zones do most of the work, and each has a distinct packaging profile.

Salalah Free Zone (SFZ)

SFZ is anchored by petrochemicals and downstream plastics, with large-scale PET sheet, resin, methanol and ammonia operations inside the zone. These export streams require heavy-duty crates for spare drums, valves, pumps, ISO tank fittings and turnaround spares. The zone also houses minerals processing and food-grade material handling, all of which need wooden pallets and bracing for container stuffing.

Port of Salalah and the transhipment hub

Salalah is a Mediterranean and East Africa transhipment node — a high percentage of boxes landed here move out again on a different vessel within days. That makes the port a place where consolidators and freight forwarders are constantly re-packing, re-blocking and re-bracing cargo for onward voyages. Packing-grade plywood for box-build, dunnage sheets for void-fill, and floor-grade ply for damaged container repair are all routine consumables here.

Raysut Industrial Estate

Raysut, on the western side of the city, is the older industrial cluster — cement, steel, building materials and a mix of fabrication units. These sectors typically need shuttering ply for civil works, heavy pallets for cement and steel binding, and packing crates for machinery spares and dies moving in or out of refurbishment.

What we ship

What we manufacture for the Salalah lane

The packing material that performs in Dhofar is not exotic. It is correctly specified, consistently made in our own operation, and dispatched on time. Here is what flows out of our facilities on the Salalah lane.

Packing-grade plywood sheets

Our standard MR-Packing range covers 6 mm through 18 mm in 8 ft x 4 ft sheets. For Salalah-bound exporters we most often supply 8 mm, 12 mm and 18 mm — 8 mm for top and side panels on light export crates, 12 mm as the workhorse for general industrial packing, and 18 mm for base panels carrying heavy machinery or petrochem spares. Face veneer options include commercial hardwood, rubberwood, and Okoume on a BWR core when the buyer wants a tighter, denser face.

Wooden crates and packing cases

For Free Zone tenants moving valves, fittings and turnaround spares, we build closed wooden crates with internal blocking and cleats. ISPM-15 heat-treated marking is standard on every export crate — Oman customs enforces it, and rejection at Salalah port is expensive. Typical crate sizes mirror the cargo: full euro-pallet footprint (1200 x 800 mm) for stackable spares, full ISO footprint (1200 x 1000 mm) for heavier loads, and bespoke long-format crates for shafts, rotors and pipe sections.

Wooden pallets

Standard ISO (1200 x 1000 mm) and Euro (1200 x 800 mm) pallets in two-way and four-way entry configurations. Block pallets where forklift access from all four sides is required for fast quayside handling, and stringer pallets for cost-sensitive one-way export flows. All export pallets are ISPM-15 stamped.

Container flooring and dunnage

For consolidators inside the port handling damaged 20 ft and 40 ft boxes, we cut 28 mm container floorboard panels to spec. For straight dunnage and void-fill, 12 mm and 15 mm packing-grade sheets cut to common widths (300 mm, 400 mm, 600 mm strips) ship as bundled lots.

Logistics

Kochi to Salalah on the Arabian Sea lane

The sea route from Cochin Port to Salalah is roughly 1,600 nautical miles. On a direct service the transit is typically 5 to 7 days; with transhipment at Jebel Ali or Colombo, plan for 10 to 14 days door-to-door. Cochin Port is a 30-minute haul from our Perumbavoor loading yards, so cargo can be at the wharf the same day it leaves the factory.

For repeat buyers we hold standard SKUs in dispatch-ready bundles, so a confirmed order against an existing spec can be at Cochin Port within 48–72 hours of payment confirmation.

Choosing a grade

Which grade fits which Salalah load

Three product lines cover almost everything moving out of Dhofar. Pick by load, not by price.

• Packing-grade plywood (MR-Packing). The default for general industrial crating, spares, valves, fittings and consolidated transhipment cargo. Cost-efficient, dimensionally stable enough for the Salalah climate, and ISPM-15 compliant when made into crates.
• Okoume face on BWR core. Where the buyer wants a tighter face for higher-value cargo — instrumentation, electronics destined for downstream refining, or anything that will sit on a quayside for extended periods before re-loading. Pricier; reserve for the loads that justify it. Okoume is a face-veneer option on the packing and BWR grades, not a separate grade.
• Shuttering ply. For Raysut-based construction and infrastructure buyers casting concrete in the Salalah civil pipeline. Built for reuse, not for export packing.

If a buyer is unsure, the simplest rule is: if it ships, packing-grade is the starting point; if it gets poured against, shuttering is the starting point. Visit our resource hub for the full grade-selection chart and ISPM-15 explainer.

FAQ

FAQ for Salalah buyers

Is your packing plywood ISPM-15 certified?

The plywood sheet itself is engineered wood and exempt from ISPM-15. The crates and pallets we build from solid-wood components are heat-treated and stamped to ISPM-15 before export. Certificate copies travel with the shipping documents.

What is the minimum order quantity for a Salalah-bound consignment?

For sea freight to make sense, most buyers consolidate to at least a 20 ft container. We can also pool smaller orders into a shared 40 ft HC if timing aligns — contact us to check the next sailing.

Can you build to a customer-supplied crate drawing?

Yes. Send the drawing or a marked-up sketch with dimensions, gross weight and any internal blocking requirements. We will quote against the drawing and confirm whether it needs a 12 mm or 18 mm base, the cleat schedule and the lashing points.

Get a quote

Get a quote on the Salalah lane

If you are sourcing packing-grade plywood, crates, pallets or container flooring for the Salalah belt — whether you are a Free Zone tenant exporting petrochem spares, a port-side consolidator handling transhipment, or a Raysut fabricator moving machinery — we can quote in the format you need: per-sheet, per-crate or per-container. Our group has manufactured in Perumbavoor since 1986, and we ship from Cochin Port on the Salalah lane regularly. Request a quote with your spec, quantity and target delivery date, and we will come back with rates, lead times and the nearest sailing.