Sitra is a small island in size but a heavy one in tonnage. Bahrain's refining, petrochemical and downstream metal industries cluster on and around it, which means the export packing flow out of Sitra is not bags and cartons — it is heavy machinery, refinery spares, pump bodies, valves, instrumentation skids and aluminium semis. That kind of cargo does not ship in stretch wrap. It ships in plywood crates, sat on heat-treated pallets, sometimes inside containers floored with hardwood ply. This is the corner of the GCC packaging market where the Cochin Wood group has been quietly relevant for decades, and this post is a practical guide to what we actually move into Sitra and how the lane works.
The Sitra industrial picture
Sitra sits south of Manama, connected by causeway, and functions as Bahrain's heavy-industrial spine. The cargo profile that matters for plywood packing comes from a few specific clusters:
- Bapco Refining (Sitra refinery): the 267,000+ bpd refinery anchors the island. Refinery turnarounds, modernisation projects and spares cycles generate a constant stream of incoming and outgoing crated equipment — heat exchanger tube bundles, valve assemblies, instrumentation, pump casings.
- Sitra Industrial Area and Sitra Wharf: the wharf on the eastern side handles a large share of Bahrain's petroleum exports, and the surrounding industrial belt houses fabricators, EPC contractors and freight-forwarders who crate refinery and oilfield gear before it goes outbound.
- Aluminium downstream around Alba (Askar belt): while Aluminium Bahrain itself is south of Sitra at Askar, the rolling, extrusion and downstream units that draw billet from Alba feed into the same packing supply chain. Coils and bundles travel on heavy pallets with ply caps.
- GPIC and the Sitra petrochem cluster: Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company on the island runs ammonia, methanol and urea trains. Catalyst skids, vessels and instrumentation move in and out under crated packing.
- Mina Salman and Khalifa Bin Salman Port (Hidd): Bahrain's container gateway at Hidd, about 15–20 km from Sitra, is where most of this crated cargo ultimately leaves on a vessel.
The common thread is heavy, irregular, high-value cargo moving by sea. That dictates what plywood spec is fit for purpose.
What we ship for Sitra-bound packing
The Cochin Wood group has been in the timber and plywood trade in Perumbavoor, Kerala since 1986 — roughly forty years of group manufacturing across packing-grade panels, sawn hardwood and downstream packing materials. The current Cochin Wood Industries (CWI) Pvt Ltd entity is more recent, but it operates inside that older group setup, which is why the packing-line product range maps so cleanly to what GCC refinery and petrochem packers actually need.
Packing-grade plywood — the core panel
Most Sitra-bound crates are built from MR-grade packing plywood, hardwood core, with Gurjan or Okoume face veneers depending on the buyer's preference. Typical specs we ship into export packing lines:
| Thickness | Common use in Sitra-bound packing |
|---|---|
| 8 mm | Light crate cladding, internal partitions, dunnage strips |
| 12 mm | Standard sidewall for medium-weight refinery spares, valves, pumps |
| 15 / 16 mm | Heavier sidewalls, tops and bottoms for vessel parts and skid-mounted gear |
| 18 mm | Bases, structural members for very heavy lifts — exchangers, large pump bodies |
Sizes are typically 8x4 ft (2440 x 1220 mm), but we cut to size for fabricators who want sheet-optimised crates and less on-site waste. For buyers handling sensitive instrumentation, we supply Okoume-faced panels with tighter surface tolerance — cleaner finish, lower fibre lift, less risk of contamination inside the crate.
Wooden crates and boxes
Most refinery and petrochem packers in Sitra prefer to build their own crates around the equipment, but they buy the panels, sawn timber framing and pallet bases as a kit. We supply both: the ply sheets and the heat-treated (ISPM-15 compliant) sawn timber needed for the framing. ISPM-15 is non-negotiable for any wooden packing entering or leaving Bahrain — every batch we ship out for export packing use carries the IPPC mark and the heat-treatment certificate.
Pallets
The pallet sizes that move easily into and out of Bahrain are the GCC-standard 1200 x 1000 mm and the ISO 1200 x 800 mm. For refinery spares we also build heavier-duty 1200 x 1200 and custom skid pallets to take exchanger tube bundles and vessel sections. All pallet timber is heat-treated and stencilled.
Container flooring plywood
This is a smaller but consistent line into the GCC. Container repair yards and reefer-conversion workshops use 28 mm and 30 mm hardwood plywood with phenolic film face for re-flooring shipping containers. We supply this on order for container fleet operators routing through Khalifa Bin Salman Port and Mina Salman.
The Kochi-to-Sitra logistics lane
Cochin Port (Vallarpadam ICTT) to Khalifa Bin Salman Port at Hidd is roughly 1900 nautical miles. The lane is not direct on most weekly services — boxes typically tranship at Jebel Ali in Dubai, sometimes at Salalah, before feeding into Bahrain. Practical transit numbers we work to:
- Sea transit, Cochin to Hidd: typically 12 to 18 days door-to-door, depending on the tranship window at Jebel Ali.
- Inland leg in India: Perumbavoor to Cochin ICTT is about 45 km — material loaded out of our Kerala packing line reaches the gate the same day.
- Last mile in Bahrain: Hidd port to Sitra industrial area is around 15–20 km by causeway and trunk road, an easy trucking move for the customer's freight-forwarder.
For buyers comparing landed cost, the Kerala origin gives two practical advantages. First, the Perumbavoor cluster is the cheapest hardwood plywood manufacturing belt in India, which keeps FOB Cochin numbers competitive against Indonesian and Chinese alternatives. Second, we are physically next to a deep-water transhipment port, which removes the 1,000+ km inland leg that landlocked North-Indian plywood mills carry.
Decision rules — which grade for which Sitra load
A simple way to choose:
- Standard packing-grade ply (MR, hardwood core): default for almost every Sitra refinery and petrochem crate. Right cost, right strength, ISPM-15 compliant framing.
- Okoume-faced packing ply: step up when the buyer wants a cleaner internal surface — instrumentation crates, catalyst skids, anything that should not pick up fibre dust during the 12–18 day transit.
- BWR / phenolic-bonded ply: use when the crate will sit outdoors in a yard before vessel cut-off, or when the cargo itself is moisture-sensitive and the crate may meet open weather on the Bahrain side.
- Shuttering ply: not typically a packing product — but Sitra and the broader Bahrain construction belt do consume film-faced shuttering ply for civil works at refinery and petrochem expansion sites. We ship this on the same lane.
FAQ
Do you ship ISPM-15 compliant material for Bahrain customs?
Yes. All sawn timber and pallet stock we ship for export packing carries the IPPC heat-treatment stamp and a heat-treatment certificate. Bahrain follows the standard ISPM-15 import rule for wooden packing material.
What MOQs make sense for a Sitra buyer?
For a mixed FCL out of Cochin we typically build 20 ft and 40 ft loads combining plywood sheets, sawn timber bundles and pallet stock. Smaller buyers often consolidate through a freight-forwarder in Cochin — we can hand over to that forwarder directly from our packing line.
Can you supply pre-cut crate kits rather than full sheets?
Yes. For repeat refinery-spares packers we cut panels to crate dimensions and band them as kits — less waste at the Sitra fabrication shop and faster crate build-up around the equipment.
Quote request
If you are packing refinery equipment, petrochem spares, aluminium semis or any other heavy cargo out of Sitra and want to compare a Kochi-origin packing supply against your current source, the fastest path is to send us the equipment list and required ply specs. We will come back with FOB Cochin numbers, a packing-list breakdown and an indicative sailing window. Request a quote with your spec sheet, or browse the resource hub for the packing grade datasheets, ISPM-15 compliance notes and crate-construction guides we share with GCC buyers.