Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company, the parent company of the Amiantit Group, has announced record sales of SR946.2 million ($252.3 million) for the first six months of 2004.

The sales represented an increase of 33 per cent compared with the same period last year. Profits were SR12.6 million against SR59.8 million.
Total assets increased to SR 3.4 billion, compared with SR 2.9 billion, an increase of 16 per cent. Fixed assets accounted for 33 per cent of the total assets for the first half in both 2004 and 2003.
Amiantit said profits were lower due to the start-up operations of new factories in Saudi Arabia, the US and India, and the expansion of factories in Spain and Germany. It explained that those were long-term investments and needed time for recovery of initial costs before they could show profits.
It expressed confidence that during the remainder of this year, those manufacturing facilities would be able to minimise the effects of the first six months as orders had already been received and the facilities were running at full capacity.
One indication that the company was moving along those lines was the clear improvement in the second quarter during which the factories were fully operational unlike in the first.
There had been price increases in certain raw materials including iron ore, which contributed to lower profit margins.
The company hopes prices will gradually stabilise in the second half.
Profits were also hit because a number of orders for supplying government projects were delayed at the request of contractors for technical and procedural reasons.
A total of new and old orders worth SR1.3 billion were awaiting implementation in the first half. Additionally, new orders were expected to come in the second half, which would greatly boost the profits picture, the company said.
The Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company was established in 1968 in Dammam as a limited liability company and was converted into a joint stock company in 1994. The other members of the Group are mainly limited liability companies - owned by the Amiantit Group in varying percentages and operating under individual commercial registrations.
The company’s capital was recently raised from SR 700 million to SR 770 million.
The Amiantit Group manufactures high-quality pipe systems, supplies advanced pipe technologies, and provides water management services. Amiantit comprises 37 production plants, 11 technology companies, and a number of trading and service companies from all corners of the globe.
The Group delivers to municipal, industrial, agricultural and energy markets worldwide, supporting global infrastructure development.
It announced last May it had won contracts worth SR80 million for water projects in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
Amiantit will supply the projects with ductile iron pipes with diameters ranging from 80 mm to 700 mm. The pipes will come from the Dammam factory of Sadip, an Amiantit Group company.  The factory, biggest of its kind in the Middle East, produces more than 150,000 tonnes of ductile iron pipes every year. Approximately 40 per cent of its production is exported.
Amitech Spain, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company, supplied fibreglass pipes to carry high quality potable water from Acequia del Sora in the Pyrenees to the Zaragoza region of Spain.
Infrastructure development in the region is the result of new industrial projects that have increased living standards for the 825,000 inhabitants of Zaragoza. A total of 140 million Euros was invested in the water supply project, of which 17 million Euros was for the pipe system itself.
Amitech Spain was awarded the pipe supply contract by Obrascon Huarte Lain (OHL), Spain’s largest construction company, which carried out the project for Acesa, a private Spanish company of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro. The project was completed recently.
“Amiantit Group companies are awarded participation in water infrastructure projects in countries all over the world, due to our industrial expertise and the technological superiority of our products,” said Fareed al Khalawi, president  and CEO of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company, “For this Spanish project the decisive factors in the contract award were the reliability and service of Amitech Spain, their capability to supply 12 m pipe lengths, and the light weight of Flowtite GRP pipes which allows the contractor to lay an average of 500 m of pipes per day.”