Gulf Exporters

Garmco cast house contract for Fives

A worker at the Garmco plant in Bahrain

Garmco, the Bahrain-based aluminium rolling mill and a major exporter, has signed up with Fives to build a new state-of-the-art cast house at its existing manufacturing complex in the kingdom’s North Sitra Industrial Area.

One of the largest downstream aluminium facilities in the Middle East, Garmco specialises in producing high-quality flat rolled aluminium products in various sizes and alloys including sheets, coils and foil stock. These products are exported to key markets around the world, stretching from Australia to the US and reaching 2,000 customers in more than 45 countries.

Fives, with whom the Bahrain company has signed a letter of intent, is an industrial engineering group and supplier of machines, process equipment and production lines for the world’s largest industrial companies.

The company has a heritage of over 200 years of engineering excellence and expertise. In 2014, it achieved a turnover of 1.5 billion euros ($1.65 billion) and employed about 8,000 people in over 30 countries. In aluminium, Fives has extensive EPC project expertise combined with world-leading reference lists in supplying casthouse equipment.

Al Soufi: position-bolstering move

Al Soufi: position-bolstering move

Total cost of the remelt project is estimated at $55 million.

The EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) project, being implemented on a turnkey basis, enables Garmco to develop its metal recycling capability and lower the cost of metal casting. The project will run for a duration of approximately 21 months, starting September 2015. The first stage has already commenced and is being managed internally by Garmco with the support of a local supplier. This stage consists of the construction of a scrap storage area and segregation unit. The new project, once complete, will enable Garmco to produce 120,000 tonnes of aluminium slabs.

EXPANSION ADVANTAGES 

Commenting, Mahmood Al Soufi, chairman of Garmco, remarked: “We are delighted to launch this important expansion project in collaboration with Fives. This facility will have a number of advantages.

Importantly, it will create 50 new jobs, further bolstering our position as one of the most sizable employers in Bahrain, and generate significant cost savings. This project, alongside one or two others, forms an integrated part of a three-year strategy and will contribute to the profitability and growth of the company regionally and internationally. We look forward to the commencement of the next phase of work on the project and our continued collaboration with world-class partners as we further build Garmco’s capacity and reach across global markets.”

Lucas: efficiency-driven expansion

Lucas: efficiency-driven expansion

Jean-Baptiste Lucas, chief executive, added: “With the launch of this re-melt expansion project, we move the company even further down the path of efficiency – both in terms of value and savings that can be extracted – but also in terms of furthering our commitment to sustainable operating and manufacturing practices. The project, once complete, will see Garmco better positioned than ever to deliver high-quality, competitive products to our customers around the world.”

A MAJOR ENTERPRISE

Garmco is a global exporter of flat rolled aluminum products with a network of subsidiaries and associates companies spanning the Middle East, Asia, the Far East, Australia, Europe and the US.

Today, the group employs over 830 people worldwide including 170 overseas, and has an
annual turnover exceeding $450 million.

Annual production capacity is 160,000 tonnes.  The company’s facilities include a foil mill of 20,000 tonnes capacity for producing semi-rigid container stock.

Garmco was established in 1981 by the governments of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and its current shareholders are: Bahrain Mumtalakat, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Industrial Bank of Kuwait, Gulf Investment Corporation, the governments of Iraq and Oman, and Qatar Holding Company.