Saudi Arabia's contribution to the chemicals industry and chemical products in the GCC during 2010 exceeded 70 percent of the total $73.2 billion of investment, latest statistics issued by the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) showed. Saudi Arabia's contribution is estimated at nearly $51.2 billion, followed by Qatar at about $10.5 billion, while Kuwait ranked third with its contribution estimated at $4.6 billion. Oman ranks fourth with $4.2 billion. The contribution of UAE is $2 billion while that of Bahrain is estimated at approximately $488 million. Saudi exports of chemicals and chemical products amounted to $10.8 billion in 2005. Exports increased to $16.2 billion in 2008. Due to the global economic crisis, they decreased to $13.7 billion. The Kingdom's imports also increased from about $5 billion in 2005 to $8.5 billion, while the same decreased to $7.6 billion in 2009, according to the latest GOIC statistics. Mohamed Al-Mady, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) Vice Chairman and CEO, and also Chairman of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), said at last year's GPCA forum that "the global trend currently pursued by major petrochemical companies is to focus on the search for feedstock availability as well as the proximity to markets for the export of their products. This is a competitive advantage," he said, "that has helped the Gulf region attract new investments in the petrochemical industry based on the availability of abundant feedstock in this region-as well as proximity to key emerging high-growth markets." Qatar, which is ranked second as an exporter of chemicals and chemical products, for the successive years from 2005 to 2009, has imports reached $580 million, $750 million, a little more than $1 billion, $1.3 billion and finally $1.5 billion in 2009. Its exports in 2005 amounted to nearly $1.85 billion and rose to $2.4 billion in 2006. In 2007, the same amounted to a little over $3 billion and up to $4.1 billion in 2008 before declining to $2.1 billion in 2009. Recent years have seen a steady rise in imports and exports of chemicals and chemical products in the GCC countries. Exports reached $14 billion in 2005 and up to $16.2 billion in 2006 and $20.7 billion in 2007. In 2008, they reached approximately $26 billion, before they were affected by the global crisis. In 2009 they declined to $22 billion. In 2005, imports were estimated at nearly $10.8 billion. They rose in successive years, respectively, to nearly $14 billion, 17.9 billion, $23.2 billion in 2008, falling to $20.7 billion in 2009. Data provided by the GOIC Industrial Information Management outlines that approximately 1,006 industrial facilities are operating in the field of chemicals and chemical products in the GCC countries. According to the Standard International Industrial Classification in its fourth application under clause number 20, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are ranked at the top with 405 plants each, followed by Oman with 80 facilities, Kuwait with 48 facilities and finally Bahrain with 37 facilities and Qatar with 31 facilities. Chemicals and chemical products industry sector covers a group of sub-industries, according to the International Classification of economic activities in its fourth application, including manufacturing of basic chemicals, fertilizers, nitrogen compounds, plastics and synthetic rubber in primary forms and industries of a variety of goods such as pesticides, paint, inks, soaps and cleaning products, perfumes and cosmetics in addition to synthetic fibers. The number of workers in the GCC chemicals and chemical products industry is estimated at 83,835 in 2010. The largest percentage is in Saudi Arabia, with about 48,612 workers (58 percent), followed by the UAE with 19,016 workers (22.7 percent), Kuwait with approximately 5,589 workers (6.7 percent), Qatar with 4,494 workers (5.4 percent), Oman with 4,128 workers (4.9 percent), and Bahrain with 1,996 workers (2.4 percent).
