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.

The industrial picture

Mesaieed runs on three heavy verticals that all consume wood packaging

Mesaieed Industrial City sits about 40 km south of Doha and is the heaviest piece of industrial real estate in Qatar — a concentrated belt of petrochem, fertilizer, LNG, steel and bulk liquid handling clustered around the deepwater port. Almost every line on that estate eventually exports something heavy in a wooden crate, palletises stainless-steel spares, or imports a packaged spool or skid that arrived on softwood dunnage. Mesaieed is one of the most consistent demand pockets in the GCC, and knowing which belt your loads come from changes the spec we recommend, so it is worth being specific.

Petrochemicals and downstream chemicals

A large petrochemical and fertilizer cluster sits inside the estate. The recurring packaging brief is heavy: catalyst drums, reactor internals, valve skids, compressor spares, fertilizer-line refurbishment kits. Crate weights of 800 kg to 3 tonnes per box are routine, and the inner stiffening — gussets, runners and braces — is often more demanding than the skin panel itself.

LNG, gas processing and energy operations

Mesaieed is one of the operational hubs for the national gas and liquids business, sitting alongside the larger LNG complex further north. LNG project work flows through Mesaieed in the form of turbine spares, cryogenic valves, instrument racks, and long-lead E&I packages. These need crates that survive multi-modal handling, monsoon-grade humidity in the originating port, and 35–45°C heat on arrival.

Steel, port logistics and marine fabrication

A major steel plant, aluminium extrusion lines and the dry-bulk operations of Mesaieed Port mean a constant flow of steel coils, billets, extrusions and offshore-fabrication packages. Container flooring replacement, dunnage planking and heavy-duty pallets sit in this belt rather than crating.

What we ship

Four product buckets cover most Mesaieed orders

The product range that lands in Qatar is narrower than our full catalogue. We manufacture the packing-grade plywood, crates and pallets that move into Mesaieed, and most orders fall into four buckets.

Packing-grade plywood (commercial and rubberwood)

This is the workhorse. We ship 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 18 mm in 8×4 ft sheets, MR-bonded, designed to be sawn and nailed in a crate shop rather than polished. 12 mm and 18 mm move in the largest volumes — 12 mm for crate skins and lid panels, 18 mm for base sleds and load-bearing decks under petrochem and LNG spares.

Okoume-faced and BWR packing plywood

For petrochem and LNG buyers who need a longer shelf life on the crate — multiple handlings, outdoor staging in the Mesaieed sun, possible re-export onward — an Okoume face veneer and a BWR-grade glue line make sense. The Okoume face takes stencilling cleanly for project marking, and BWR resin tolerates the humidity swing between the Kochi monsoon load-out and the Qatari summer. Okoume is a face-veneer option on the packing and BWR grades, not a separate grade.

Hardwood crates and pallets

We build closed crates, open crates, skid bases, and four-way and two-way pallets to the buyer's drawing, or to standard footprints: 1200×1000, 1200×800, 1100×1100, and custom oversize for transformer and turbine work. Hardwood runners are jackwood or rubberwood depending on load class, and all wooden packaging destined for Qatar is heat-treated to ISPM-15.

Container flooring and dunnage

For Mesaieed Port operators and CFS yards rebuilding reefers and dry boxes, we supply 28 mm container-flooring grade panels in standard 2400×1160 mm sizes. Loose dunnage planks in sawn hardwood — 100×100 and 150×150 sections — round out the offer for steel and aluminium shipments.

Logistics

Kochi to Mesaieed is a short lane by GCC standards

The sea route is the only economic option for this trade lane, and it is a short one. All hardwood crates, pallets and dunnage are heat-treated and stamped with the IPPC mark before loading, and phytosanitary certification is arranged at Kochi.

FOB Cochin pricing is the cleanest term for first-time Mesaieed buyers; once a steady flow is established, CFR Hamad Port or DAP Mesaieed becomes easier to plan around. We hold a working buffer of standard packing-grade thicknesses, so a confirmed PI for a full 20' container in standard sizes can usually load within 7–10 working days of advance receipt.

Choosing a grade

Packing grade vs Okoume vs shuttering — a quick filter

The wrong specification is the most expensive mistake in this trade. A quick filter for Mesaieed buyers:

• Use commercial / rubberwood packing-grade plywood when the crate is single-trip, the cargo is reasonably tolerant, and cost-per-square-foot matters. This covers the majority of fertilizer-line, general spares and steel-mill ancillary shipments.
• Step up to Okoume-faced or BWR packing when the crate will be staged outdoors at Mesaieed for weeks, will see multiple handlings, or carries optical, electronic or precision-machined cargo that cannot afford moisture pickup. Most LNG and instrument shipments sit here.
• Use shuttering plywood only where the panel itself is the working surface — formwork for jetty extensions, civil works inside the estate, marine fabrication moulds — not for crating. It is overbuilt for packaging and underbuilt for some chemical exposures.
• Choose ISPM-15 hardwood pallets over plywood pallets for steel coils, aluminium extrusions, and any load over 1.5 tonnes static. Plywood-deck pallets work well for fertilizer bags and consumer goods, not for heavy industrials.

FAQ

Common questions from Mesaieed buyers

Do your crates and pallets meet ISPM-15 for Qatar customs?

Yes. All hardwood crates, pallets and dunnage destined for Qatar are heat-treated and stamped with the IPPC mark and the treating facility code. Phytosanitary certification is arranged at Kochi before loading.

What minimum order makes a Kochi-to-Mesaieed shipment economic?

A single 20' GP container is the practical floor — roughly 22–24 tonnes of mixed packing-grade plywood, or around 1,000 sq ft of finished crates depending on the build. Sub-container LCL works for sample orders but the per-unit freight gets heavy.

Can you build to a Mesaieed buyer's drawing rather than catalogue sizes?

Yes — most crate orders are drawing-to-build. Send the cargo dimensions, target gross weight, and any handling notes (forklift pockets, lifting lugs, stencilling), and we quote the panel mix, hardwood frame and ISPM-15 treatment together.

Get a quote

Send your specs and we will price the lane

If you are sourcing packing-grade plywood, crates, pallets or container flooring for an operation inside Mesaieed Industrial City — whether it is an energy-sector project, a petrochem refurbishment, fertilizer-line maintenance or steel-mill consumables — send across your specs and we will come back with FOB Cochin and CFR Hamad Port numbers, lead time and a packing list. Everything is manufactured in Perumbavoor, where our group has run plywood and timber operations since 1986. Request a quote with thickness, monthly volume and delivery point, or browse the technical briefs in our resource hub for spec sheets, ISPM-15 notes and container-loading plans before you write the RFQ.

The industrial picture

Where plywood demand sits across Qatar

Doha is not a heavy-industry capital in the Mumbai or Jebel Ali sense. It is a capital city with a focused industrial footprint that punches above its weight because of Hamad Port, the post-tournament construction legacy, and a re-export economy that funnels GCC-bound cargo through a single deep-water gateway. For a Kochi-based plywood manufacturer that translates into a specific demand pattern: ISPM-15 stamped crates for equipment leaving the country, sturdy pallets for warehouse turnover at the northern and southern industrial cities, and packing-grade sheets that buyers in the Industrial Area south of the city use to fabricate their own boxes. Most plywood-consuming activity clusters in three zones, and the freight terms, buyer profile and order size all shift between them.

Doha Industrial Area (Street 1 through Street 50)

The Industrial Area south of the city, the grid of numbered streets running out toward Sailiya, is where most wooden-box workshops, joinery contractors and plywood-resale traders operate. Orders here tend to be mixed-thickness 8×4 ft sheets, picked up in 20-ft container quantities, and turned into crates inside the workshop. Buyers want consistent thickness tolerance and a glue line that holds when a panel saw rips it across the grain.

Ras Laffan and Mesaieed industrial cities

North at Ras Laffan and south at Mesaieed, the demand shifts toward heavy-duty crating for oil-and-gas turnaround equipment, valves, pump skids and instrumentation packages, typically returning to Europe, the US Gulf Coast or East Asia after maintenance. These jobs need ISPM-15 heat-treated and stamped timber, screwed crate construction with internal bracing, and sometimes a plywood-skinned crate over a sawn-timber frame. Lead times are tighter and the spec sheets are stricter.

Hamad Port logistics yards and free zone

The Umm Al Houl free zone and the logistics yards inside Hamad Port drive a third stream: pallet pools for transit cargo, container flooring panels for re-purposing 20-ft and 40-ft boxes into project shipments, and packing materials for the consolidation operators who pick up the Qatar leg of a longer GCC routing.

What we ship

The product mix on the Doha lane

What we send to Qatar is narrower than what we move pan-India, because the buyer is almost always packing for export and the freight cost penalises anything wasteful.

Packing-grade plywood sheets

Standard sizes are 8×4 ft and 7×4 ft, in thicknesses from 6mm through 18mm. The two workhorses on the Doha lane are 12mm for crate sides and lids and 18mm for crate bases and floor decks. We supply both commercial/rubberwood packing grade and an Okoume-faced packing grade. The Okoume face is a clean, light-coloured veneer that some Qatari fabricators prefer when the end customer photographs the crate before shipping. Both are pressed on the MR-Packing or BWR base; Okoume is a veneer option on top of those grades, not a separate grade in its own right.

ISPM-15 crates, knockdown and assembled

For the oil-and-gas and equipment-return jobs we build crates two ways: fully assembled with internal blocking and lifting cleats for direct loading, or knocked-down flat-pack kits with pre-cut panels, marked components and a fastener pack. The flat-pack form saves roughly a third of the container cube on the outbound Kochi-to-Doha leg, and the crate is reassembled on the customer's floor. All structural timber is heat-treated to 56°C core for 30 minutes and stamped to ISPM-15.

Pallets

Two-way and four-way entry pallets in standard 1200×800 mm (Euro), 1200×1000 mm, and the 1100×1100 mm GCC pool size. Top deck either close-boarded plywood or sawn-timber slats depending on the load class.

Container flooring

28mm marine-grade plywood floor panels for container repair and re-flooring, cut to the standard 20-ft and 40-ft box footprints, with a hardwood face for screw retention.

Logistics

The Kochi-to-Doha lane

The shipping lane is straightforward, and that is part of why this route works cleanly. Cochin Port to Hamad Port is roughly 1,800 nautical miles direct; mainline carriers route via either a direct GCC sailing or a Jebel Ali transshipment, with door-to-door transit running 12 to 18 days depending on which window catches the vessel rotation. We dispatch ex-Perumbavoor by road trailer to ICD Cochin or directly to the Vallarpadam terminal at Cochin Port, FCL 20-ft or 40-ft, with the bill of lading consigned per the buyer's customs broker.

For volumes that don't fill a container we consolidate with our other GCC shipments — Dammam, Jebel Ali, Sohar — and the Doha leg moves as a partial via a feeder out of Jebel Ali. The incoterms we work most often are FOB Cochin, CFR Hamad Port and CIF Hamad Port; DAP into the Industrial Area is doable, but the in-Qatar leg is sub-contracted to a Doha-side trucker who knows the gate clearances. All structural timber in our crates and pallets is heat-treated and stamped to the IPPC ISPM-15 standard, carrying our HT mark and registered facility code for the customs check at gate.

Choosing a grade

Decision rules for Doha-bound loads

The grade question comes up on almost every enquiry, so it is worth laying out the rule of thumb we apply when a Doha buyer is on the line.

FAQ

Common questions on Qatar shipments

Do you supply ISPM-15 stamped material into Qatar?

Yes. All structural timber in our crates and pallets destined for Qatar is heat-treated and stamped to the IPPC ISPM-15 standard. The stamp carries our HT mark and the registered facility code, which is what Qatar Customs and onward GCC and EU customs authorities check at gate.

What is the minimum order you ship to Doha?

Practical minimum is a 20-ft FCL — roughly 380 to 420 plywood sheets at 18mm depending on density, or around 24 to 28 standard equipment crates flat-packed. Below that we can consolidate with other GCC despatches, but the freight per unit climbs sharply, and we will be honest about that when we quote.

Can you quote in QAR and bill against a Qatar-side LC?

We quote in USD by default for export, which is the GCC norm; QAR conversion at the prevailing rate is fine, and we work with confirmed irrevocable letters of credit through the buyer's Doha bank. Payment terms beyond LC at sight are negotiable on repeat orders.

Get a quote

Send us your Doha spec sheet

If you are packing equipment for export out of the Industrial Area, running a crate workshop south of Doha, or specifying plywood for a project consolidation at Hamad Port, send us the panel sizes, thicknesses and monthly volumes, and we will come back with an ex-Cochin and a CFR Hamad Port quote within a working day. Everything is manufactured in Perumbavoor, where our group has operated since 1986. Request a quote with the spec sheet attached, or browse the technical material on our resource hub for grade explanations, packing-list templates and the ISPM-15 documentation we issue with every Qatar-bound container.