Oman had positive news about an aluminium venture and a new project to produce television sets.
Press reports said the $2.5 billion aluminium venture had been revived with the completion of a new feasibility study and that a foreign company had been offered a majority stake to help build the plant.
Oman Oil Company (OOC) and its partner, Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) are assessing the finding of the study. The two will form a company to build the plant with a shareholding of 49 per cent. OOC and Adwea have offered a 51 per cent stake to an international aluminium company to join them as partner, the reports suggested.
Alcan of Canada has been named as the possible majority stakeholder. Representatives of the company are believed to have had a few rounds of talks with OOC and Adwea. The project has been hanging fire for some five years, mainly because of fluctuating prices and the fact that there is already substantial capacity in the Gulf itself with two world-scale aluminium smelters, one in Bahrain and the other in Dubai.
India’s Videocon Group plans to set up Oman’s first industrial venture to manufacture television sets and video cassette players (VCPs), Commerce and Industry Minister Maqbool bin Ali Sultan said.
The television project is to come up at the Rusayl Industrial Estate near Muscat city.
The Videocon Group produces television sets, VCRs, audio systems, washing machines, refrigerators, air-conditioners and picture tubes for colour televisions. It is the first Indian company to win the prestigious CE approval for exporting it’s colour TV sets to Europe. Videocon Group has five major firms to manufacture different consumer electronics and home appliances products for Indian and export markets. These include Videocon International, Videocon Appliances, Videocon Narmada Glass, Videocon VCR and Videocon Leasing and Industrial Finance.
The company has also undertaken complete backward integration to produce all critical and important components of its products, including electronic tuners. Videocon Narmada Glass manufactures glass shells for colour TV picture tubes in collaboration with Techneglas Inc, USA. The plant has an annual capacity of 1.7 million glass shells for colour picture tubes and 0.25 million glass bulbs for black and white picture tubes and monochromes.
