Diversify and expand

UAE

Irfan Mulla, chairman and CEO of Taj Al Mulook, and Shaikh Rafeeque Qureshi, the company’s COO, talk to The Energy Year about how their company has developed its products and grown its volumes in the UAE over the years. Taj Al Mulook supplies chemicals and raw materials for industries, including the oil and gas sector.

How has Taj Al Mulook developed its products over the years?
Irfan MULLA: We set foot in the UAE market back in 1989, starting off by distributing paint and construction chemicals. Over the years we’ve grown as suppliers or “catalysts,” as we like to call it, between chemical manufacturers and product manufacturers, supplying an array of chemicals to different industries, especially the oil and gas sector. The oil and gas and petrochemicals sectors account for about 70% of our demand.
Noticing the demand for polymers and base oils, a larger percentage of what we sell falls under that segment.
Over the years, we’ve invested a lot in R&D to reach out to the right suppliers who’ve matched our product demand. To name a few of our suppliers; we work with SK Chemicals, GS Caltex, Chemlube, Shell, Borouge, Sabic, Sipchem, Tasnee, Aramco, Advanced Petrochemicals, OQ and others. Many of our suppliers are from Korea, Europe and the US.
Our customers come from various sectors, but for the energy value chain we deal primarily with Emirates Steel, Borouge and ADNOC, supplying various products with different grades such as base oils, which is a raw material needed for various types of engine oils, lubricants and other industrial applications.
We’ve expanded not only our offerings, but our geographical reach too. We have an international footprint with a presence across the Middle East and Africa in markets such as Tanzania, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Jordan.

How would you describe the company’s competitive advantages?
IM: To begin with, having been around for over 30 years in the UAE is a competitive advantage in itself. We’ve been nation builders, contributing to the UAE’s economic growth and becoming an integral part of an ever-growing country. It adds immediate value and makes us instantly trustworthy. Consequently, we have established ourselves as a reliable partner over the years.
We also support the UAE’s goal of sustainability and ensure that everything we source or sell is done ethically. The environmental impacts of chemical products are already plenty, so we ensure we minimise them.
We don’t just focus on selling chemical solutions to our customers, but sell complete solutions that can support them in manufacturing the final product. Along with raw materials, we also act as advisers and deliver the best service possible. To ensure that there’s no supply shortage, we also keep a certain amount of stock available at all times.
Our most precious resource is the team of people we have working at the company. We give great attention to who we hire and always aim to give them responsibilities, which creates honesty, loyalty and motivation across the team.
I’m proud to say that we have accomplished a long track record and we’ve also been ranked 10th among the best companies in the petrochemicals sector, as rated by clients across the GCC and Africa in an ICIS survey. In the worldwide rankings, we are placed 95th.

Could you tell us about the assets you own and your supply capacity?
Shaikh Rafeeque QURESHI: We have a total of five warehouses in the UAE in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Umm Al Quwain and Dubai mainland, and another six facilities in Saudi Arabia. We deal with different sectors and supply a range of chemicals and industrial raw materials. We trade over 600,000 tonnes per year. These numbers include products that are a mix of commodity chemicals and speciality chemicals we supply. Base oils account for more than 20%.
We have contracts/orders to supply base oils and other products to various multinational clients including ADNOC, Fuchs, Petronas, Technolube (owned by Petromin Corporation) and MAK Lubricants, among others. To put in perspective the size of the market we are currently dealing with, around 1 million tonnes of base oil are treated per month in the UAE, while we are currently handling only around 120,000 tonnes per year.

What opportunities are you eyeing for the coming years?
SRQ: When we look at the footprint we have in different sectors and consider how these sectors will grow in the forthcoming years, we see a lot of potential. Be it different types of solvents, polymers, petrochemical derivatives, or lubricants, we think we will be able to exceed our current market share by 200-300% in the upcoming years.
We will be expanding our offer and diversifying to provide better solutions, which will include supplying diesel, solvents and chemical fertilisers.
Having mainly served the MEA [Middle East and Africa] region in recent years, we are now looking at geographical expansion as well by penetrating markets such as Europe, North America and South America. This, of course, will require us to invest in the latest technology and forge strategic partnerships in those regions to support our goals.
Before 2025, we plan to construct our own storage terminals in order to support our growth.
We have seen a tenfold expansion over the last decade and estimate a similar growth trajectory over the next few years.

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