Ras Laffan Industrial City sits roughly 80 km north of Doha and runs the world's largest single-site LNG export complex. Behind every LNG train, sulphur berth, GTL unit and helium plant is a steady flow of process equipment that has to be crated, blocked, braced and floated across an ocean. That packaging demand — quiet, recurring, unglamorous — is exactly the work the Cochin Wood group has been engineered around for four decades. This post walks through what we ship into Ras Laffan, how we ship it from Kochi, and how a buyer in Al Khor municipality should think about specifying plywood for the city's typical loads.
The Ras Laffan industrial picture
Ras Laffan is operated by QatarEnergy and built almost entirely around the North Field — the largest non-associated gas field on the planet. The city is not a generic free zone. It is a single-purpose hydrocarbon export campus, and the packaging needs flow directly from that.
Sectors that drive plywood demand here
- LNG mega-trains and the North Field expansion — Qatargas / QatarEnergy LNG legacy trains plus the NFE and NFS expansion projects. Heat exchangers, cold boxes, compressor internals, cryogenic spools and valve skids all arrive and leave crated.
- GTL and petrochemicals — Pearl GTL, Oryx GTL and the Ras Laffan petrochemical complex push a constant repair-and-return flow of catalyst drums, reactor internals and pump assemblies.
- Helium plants and sulphur handling — Helium 1, 2 and 3 plus the sulphur loading berth keep specialist EPC contractors and equipment OEMs cycling spares through the port.
- Port and marine services — the 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 — Qatari 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 to Ras Laffan
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. Standard thicknesses in active production are 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
A premium face-veneer option on our MR-Packing and BWR grades. Okoume 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. We treat Okoume as a face option on packing or BWR grade, not as a separate grade card.
ISPM-15 export crates and cases
For buyers who do not run an in-house carpentry shop, we supply finished crates and cases built 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.
Kochi-to-Ras Laffan logistics
The shipping economics here are very 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; 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, fumigation and stencilling are completed in-yard before container stuffing, so the cargo lands in Qatar audit-ready.
Decision rules — which plywood for which Ras Laffan job
A practical cheat-sheet for buyers specifying material for the city's typical loads:
| Cargo profile | Recommended spec |
|---|---|
| Heavy structural steel, modular skids, pipe spool sets | Commercial packing ply, 12-18 mm, in cleated open crates |
| Process equipment, compressor internals, valves | BWR packing ply, 18 mm base + 12 mm sides, fully closed case |
| Cryogenic spools, analyzers, instrumentation | Okoume-faced BWR, 12-15 mm, tri-wall case with desiccant |
| Formwork and on-site civil packaging | Shuttering ply, 12-18 mm film-faced |
| Container floor retrofits / one-way containers | 18 mm BWR or marine-grade flooring ply |
| Pallets for 1,500-3,000 kg loads | Hardwood frame (jackwood/rubberwood) + 12 mm ply deck |
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
Do you supply ISPM-15 certified 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 a Ras Laffan 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.
Request a quote
The Cochin Wood group has been manufacturing plywood out of Perumbavoor since 1986, and CWI Pvt Ltd is the export arm that takes that 40+ years of group 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.