Polystyrene Demand to Go Up in UAE

If the figures of a semi-official study are any indication, it would seem that the consumption of polystyrene is a barometer of development as the material has found widespread application in the construction boom in the UAE as an insulating material as also registering ubiquitous presence as a material for packaging and disposable crockery. Polystyrene imports by the UAE have understandably more than doubled over the past eight years with an average annual growth of around 5.5 per cent. However, it is the domestic manufacturing of polystyrene and not just the imports that satiates the demand for more and more polystyrene. In fact, domestic production of XPS products in the UAE that started in 2003 has resulted in imports coming to a virtual halt, and almost the entire demand is being met by domestic manufacturing.

The fact that the material remains non-biodegradable is perhaps one factor that could constrain the growth in demand, but not by much, as collection of the material for the purpose of recycling should not be problem. Globally the dominant presence of polystyrene as a construction material cannot be overemphasized, said the study by the government supported Emirates Industrial Bank. EIB opines that installing thermal insulation systems in buildings could reduce the power requirements of a building by as much as 40%. According to EIB, the polystyrene products have two categories: Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and Extruded Polystyrene (XPS).

UAE Undertakes to Fight Food Insecurity

March,20: Amid rising concerns over a myriad of issues-- the over-dependency of the Arab world on foreign shores for food security; stray incidents of food scare in the form of carcinogenic pesticides allegedly found in food imports; the UAE’s domestic self-sufficiency crippled by a paucity of arable land and water as well as the latest misgivings of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization about global food security expected to plummet over the next two years in case the maize and wheat production does not bump up substantially by 2011-- the oil-rich UAE has apparently undertaken to wage a war on food insecurity in all of its forms.

Several of the Gulf States may be floating on oil, but these oil-rich nations have to look further than their own shores to meet their food demands as the supplies come from India, many of the African nations such as Sudan and farmlands of other foreign countries. The UAE has to import nearly 80% of its food products as the locally processed food account for an exiguous 20%.

Quite understandably, the UAE has chalked up a plan to set up a government-owned multi-million dollar trading house in its bid to secure vagaries-free food supplies for its teeming millions. Agricultural investments abroad would have to be ramped up and the domestic produce would have to be given more of a fillip.

Credit Crunch Drives another Nail in MFIs’ Coffin

Mumbai, Mar,20. If one didn’t know better, it would seem that the microfinance industry in India is in the throes of heaving its last breath with the flat refusal by banks to lend credit to microfinance institutions (MFIs), as the chances of loan recovery are nothing if not slim. As the credit-crunch precipitated by the refusal by banks to lend credit to MFIs drives another nail in the dying industry, Vijay Mahajan, President of Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), an industry group, feels that a clutch of MFIs may be forced to shut down their businesses as early as 1 January. “Come January, and we are dead,” he said.

Vijay Mahajan’s comment came on the sidelines of a banking conference here. MFIN which comprises 44 member companies accounts for nearly 80% of the microfinance lending in India.

Mahajan said MFIs are ready to provide any collateral that they are asked to even if it is equity, but he added that banks have not lent at all to the microfinance sector in the last six weeks. Corporation Bank, CMD, Ramnath Pradeep, said that he had told his MFI clients that any new lending would entail their agreement, of necessity, to the conversion of loans into equity in case of a default.

Bank funding for MFIs has come to a virtual stop ever since the Andhra Pradesh government issued an ordinance to coerce recovery and began capping loan rates which caused lending and collections to nosedive and private-equity backed micro-lenders to delay sale of shares