Alba to build Potline 6
Alba is to launch a five-year plan that could help take its annual production past the million-tonne mark.
Its board of directors has approved a strategic alliance agreement with US-based Alcoa Incorporated. The agreement provides for the evaluation of a proposal for additional capacity of 255,000 tonnes per year. The aim would be to increase the smelter's annual production capacity by the end of the decade to one million tonnes, with the construction of Potline 6.
The board backed moves to co-operate with Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mills Company (Garmco) to investigate mutually beneficial possibilities.
Alba chief executive Bruce Hall later said the $1.7 billion Potline 5 expansion was on target.
"Many key elements are already in place and we are expecting a significant return in line with our business plans," he said.
"We are on schedule for the first metal to be poured in late 2004 or early 2005."
Hall revealed Alba had signed an agreement with Aluminium Pechiney to utilise its Potline 4 technology for Potline 5.
The Potline 5 project will make Alba the largest smelter in the world outside of Eastern Europe.
Iffco acquires Snappy assets
Food processing company Iffco Group has taken over Hamriyah Fee Zone-based Snappy International.
Snappy claims to be the first instant noodles maker in the UAE and the second in the GCC.
"We have taken over the assets and the brand, Snapps, but not the company itself or its liabilities," said Rizwan Ahmed of group company Tiffany Foods.
Snappy started operations in the free zone last year and has four instant noodle flavours in the market: chicken, curry, vegetable and seafood. Ahmed said he takeover made sense for Iffco, saying his own company had an excellent UAE distribution network and the product fit into its portfolio.
Balexco to set up plant in Aden
Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (Balexco) has signed a deal for a BD37 million ($98.1 million) joint venture to build and operate an extrusion plant in Yemen. The plant will be constructed in Aden with a consortium of Yemeni businessmen. Yemeni ambassador to Bahrain Ahmed Mohammed Al Mutawakel said the agreement was a 50:50 ownership deal that would create more than 300 jobs for Yemenis. The plant will be one of the first manufacturing ventures to be started in Aden's recently established industrial free zone.
Ofoc to enter new markets
Oman Fiber Optic Company (Ofoc) plans to enter new markets in the Far East, Australia and East Africa. Ofoc general manager Mohammed Hassan Al Theeb said his company had specific goals to secure a share in those markets within the next five years. Ofoc is the only company in Oman that makes fibre optic cables and one of three such companies in the Gulf. The other companies are in Saudi Arabia.
New firm to start production soon
Dubai's first pharmaceutical production plant Globalpharma will roll out its first medicare products in the local market within a few months.
The $20.4 million plant is in the process of registering the first few branded generics that it will produce.
Globalpharma is a joint venture between Dubai Investments, which has a 65 per cent share in equity, and India's Kopran Ltd, which provides the technology and has the remaining 35 per cent stake.
Qasco to hike output
The Qatar Steel Company (Qasco) plans to raise production by 50 per cent over the next three years. General manager Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Thani said that by the end of 2001, Qasco's production increased by 900,000 tonnes or 22 per cent.
The increased production would be marketed in South Asia, North America, Sudan and Yemen. The official said the company had been facing major challenges due to the dumping policies adopted by some steel producing countries as well as falling prices in the international markets.
Dubai sets up new free zone
Dubai has set up a new free zone to boost the re-exports of trucks and heavy equipment. The Heavy Equipment and Trucks Zone (Hetz) will have administrative offices, licensing offices, banks, customs and a chamber of commerce office among other things.
The lease periods and rates will be announced later, said Sultan bin Sulayem, chief executive of the Dubai Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation.
The new zone will function under the umbrella of the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority.
Sharjah plans environment village
Sharjah Municipality plans to set up an 'environment village' for the management of wastes based on international disposal, treatment and recycling standards.
Engineer Yehia Ramadan Al Bloushi, deputy head of the environment protection department, was quoted by the Dubai press as saying the municipality would use non-traditional methods of technical waste disposal, treatment and recycling to maintain an environment devoid of pollution.
He said the municipality had studied the project thoroughly and was now in the process of choosing a suitable site that would be convenient from the environmental perspective. According to the plan, toxic and non-toxic liquid and solid wastes, including debris from construction sites, automobile spares, tyres and medical wastes, would initially be separated and classified for treatment and recycling.
Those which could be recycled for manufacturing fertilisers would be transferred to the plant, while construction debris would be used for levelling ditches and roads. Plastic, glass, paper and metal wastes would also be recycled.
The project will require the establishment of a number of stations for collecting and classifying wastes.
Packaging firm opens Dafz facility
Tetra Pak, one of the leading suppliers of liquid food processing and packaging systems, opened its new GTS Parts Supply Chain facility at the Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZ). DAFZ director-general Dr Zarouni was invited to open the new facility by Malts Larsson, global director, and John A de Mercado, regional manager, Parts Supply Chain, GTS Middle East & Asia.
"The goal of setting up this facility is to support Tetra Pak's technical products by enhancing customer operations and profitability for the Mideast region," Larsson said. "Spare parts are important components for reaching customer satisfaction and now by opening this facility in DAFZ our regional strategy to improve parts logistics support and lead time reduction to the Middle East cluster has been achieved."
