PWC Awarded EQUATE’s 5-Year Middle East Overland

January 21, 2002

PWC Awarded EQUATE’s 5-Year Middle East Overland Transportation Contract

Kuwait City, Kuwait – The Public Warehousing Company was recently awarded a 5-year overland transportation contract by EQUATE Petrochemical Company, a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company, the Government of Kuwait, through Petrochemical Industries Company and the Kuwaiti public, through the shares of Boubyan Petrochemical Company.

The scope of the contract is for the transportation on full trailer loads of palletized Polyethylene pallets from Kuwait to almost every country in the Arabian Peninsula, which include Bahrain, Qatar, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, Jordan and Lebanon.

The contract requires PWC to manage both, a dedicated and a spot fleet of trucks, to transport the every growing shipments of EQUATE.

The contract was awarded to PWC on the basis of following characteristics:
• Financially strong company
• Company focused on Supply Chain Management Services
• Availability of online tracking system
• Flexibility in meeting the growing demands of EQUATE

“During EQUATE’s bidding team contracting process, we found that The Public Warehousing Company was the best strategic partner, with the financial resources, the know-how and the people to meet our transportation demand criteria and who could ensure that our customers are always satisfied,” said Captain Majed Al-Marzouk, Logistics Manager.

About The Public Warehousing Company:

The Public Warehousing Company (PWC) Group established in 1979 provides leading edge supply chain, e-commerce, customs, price research and decision support solutions to private and public sector entities worldwide. PWC is publicly traded and is currently listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) with a market capitalization of 350 Million US Dollars.

In addition to its substantial logistics operations, PWC has a controlling interest in Inspection & Control Services Company (ICS), the world’s leading provider of destination customs and price research solutions. Representative customers and/or partners of the PWC Group include McDonalds, Nestle, Exe Technologies, Governments of Dubai, Argentina, and Yugoslavia, American Science & Engineering, the SAS Institute, and Microsoft Corporation.

PWC was privatized in June of 1997 and has a share-holding base comprising approximately 20,000 investors, including prominent private and public sector investors such as the National Real Estate Company (owners of the Free Trade Zone Concession) and the Public Institute for Social Security (the Pension Arm of the Government). PWC's services include:
• Supply Chain Solutions
• Customs Modernization and Decision Support Solutions
• Property Management Solutions

About EQUATE Petrochemical Company:

EQUATE owns and operates a petrochemical complex in Shuaibah, Kuwait, with an annual production capability of 800,000 tons of ethylene, 600,000 tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of ethylene glycol. Ethylene glycol is a key intermediate for polyester fiber and container resin. Polyethylene is used in a broad variety of packaging and agricultural film and container molding applications.