Responding to growing demand for high performing corrosion-resistant piping systems in Saudi Arabia’s oil, gas and petrochemical industries, Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company opened its own manufacturing facility in Dammam in March to supply the systems.

Amiantit Epoxy Pipe Production Plant (Amipox) will produce glass-reinforced epoxy pipes within the range of 80 mm and 600 mm diameter in a standard pipe length of nine metres and in pressure classes up to 3,000 psi (200 bar).
The plant, built at a cost of SR30 million ($8 million) and fully owned by Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company, is fully automated and includes a computer-controlled filament winding pipe production unit. It produces under the licence of Amipox International Technology, which also is fully owned by Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company.
The facility, at Dammam’s First Industrial City, now covers 1,800 sq m of some 7,600 sq m building space, the remaining area reserved for phase two which will include a second pipe production line and a fittings production line. The total area of the Amipox site includes an additional 7,500 sq m of open ground.
Amipox GRE products serve a variety of markets including industrial, oilfield, chemical, offshore and marine. GRE pipes are lightweight, easy to transport and install and extremely resistant to corrosion. They are used as a cost-effective alternative to metallic piping, which often degrades and fails due to corrosion.
Fareed Al Khalawi, president and CEO of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company, said the new facility was a visible example of Amiantit’s leadership in pipe manufacturing technology.
“We can all be proud we are the world’s biggest fibreglass pipe manufacturer and that we have reversed the import of technology, since we are now using and exporting our own pipe manufacturing technology.”
The Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company is a joint stock company established in Dammam in 1968. It has direct and indirect investments in companies involved in manufacturing, technology, services, trading and investment.
The 17 manufacturing companies under its umbrella make pipes and pipe products in fibreglass, polyurethane, ductile iron, concrete, reinforced thermosetting resin and rubber as well as polyurethane coating material.