Ducab, the leading manufacturer of high-quality power cables in the Middle East, has made a capital investment of Dh125 million ($34.03 million) to set up a copper rod casting plant in its Abu Dhabi factory premises.

The investment comes at a time when Ducab indicated revenue growth was around 30 per cent to Dh988 million in 2005 against revenues of Dh760 million in the previous year. “We had Dh1.1 billion in sales last year, Fatma Obaid Saleh Farhan, Ducab’s marketing manager, was quoted in the Dubai press as saying.
Fatma also said the company expected similar growth in 2006 and that the outlook for the next 10 years remained strong – within the range of 30 per cent year-on-year growth.
Some 75 per cent of Ducab’s products are sold in the UAE market. Of local sales, 50 per cent goes to the public sector.
The company said the move to set up a copper rod casting plant was part of its strategy for backward integration of processes, mainly to cater for its raw material requirements needed for the manufacture of high-quality power cables.
The new plant will have a manufacturing capacity of up to 160,000 tonnes of 8 mm copper rods a year, produced at the highest levels of international standards, it said. “The plant will be equipped with the most advanced technology and equipment, with a high degree of automation to ensure superior quality and high yield. The Contirod technology at the new plant is developed by the world-renowned German manufacturer, SMS Meer,” a statement said.  Contirod is a registered trademark of Cumerio SA. Belgium.
Ducab managing director Colin Paskins said: “Our decision to invest in this copper rod casting plant will help us in achieving greater economies of scale and improve our competitiveness. A better control on raw materials will facilitate Ducab to have better command over the entire value chain.”
Paskins said that although the copper rod manufactured by the new plant would mainly be used to meet the company’s own requirements, there would also be an opportunity for it to sell off any excess capacity.
Ducab’s copper rod casting plant will be situated in the company’s production facility at Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi plant is Ducab’s biggest investment since its inception and was built as part of Ducab’s corporate strategy of increasing its business to Dh2 billion by 2010.
 Established in 1979, Ducab is the first purpose-built cable manufacturing company in the UAE and is equally owned by the Government of Dubai and Government of Abu Dhabi. Its product range covers low voltage power cables, control and auxiliary cables, wiring and lead-sheathed cables, Ducab Powerplus medium voltage cables (up to 33 kV) and Ducab Smokemaster, low smoke and fume zero halogen cables.
Ducab is also well known as the supplier of Ducab Connect cable accessories. Ducab is certified to ISO 9001: 2000 quality management systems and ISO 14001 environment protection systems. A three-time winner of the Dubai Quality Award, it has implemented manufacturing and business excellence programmes involving Six Sigma, Kaizen and benchmarking with the world’s best practices.