A joint venture in Qatar is planning to utilise water desalination waste to produce 1Mtpy of salt.

Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) and the country’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC) have entered a joint venture, and are planning to build a salt production facility in Qatar’s Um Al Houl area with an investment of US$290M. The facility will use reject water recovery from reverse osmosis desalination units, to manufacture salt, as well as bromine, potassium chlorides, and demineralised water. The salt production facility will have an annual production capacity of 1Mtpy of industrial and edible salt, catering to the local market and exporting to regional and global markets.

QIMC was established in 1990 with a 20% government and 80% private equity split. The state-owned QatarEnergy is the founder and majority stakeholder of MPHC, and is supporting the project through the TAWTEEN localisation program.

The primary aim of the plant is to achieve self-sufficiency in salt production for Qatar, reducing its reliance on imports. This project underlines Qatar's efforts to diversify its economy beyond oil and gas by developing its industrial sector. The plant is expected to meet local market demands and support regional and international exports. It will significantly reduce Qatar’s importation of between 500 and 750ktpy of table and industrial salts annually, thus enhancing local supply chains and increasing industrial self-sufficiency. India has supplied more than 95% of the imports into Qatar since 2020, which means part of the export of salt from India (roughly 6% of its total exports) will need to be redirected elsewhere.