MESC Specialized Cables looks set this year to greatly overshadow its strong 2005 performance with sales in the first half of this year having far exceeded targets.

The company reported sales of SR206.23 million ($54.9 million) for first-half 2006. Turnover for the whole of 2005 was SR276.54 million, up around 42 per cent over the previous year.
The company has targeted sales of SR320 million for the whole of this year, of which nearly half is to be accounted for by industrial, instrumentation and process cables. Revenues from the sales of these cables for the first six months of the year have exceeded their target. The company also makes systems cables and power and control cables.
 More than half the turnover in 2005 and 2004 had come from the family of industrial, instrumentation and process cables, especially those used in the oil and gas, petrochemical and water and power EPC contracts.
Among contracts the company announced this year were two for the supply of instrumentation and control cables worth more than $16 million for Saudi projects. In one of the orders JGC of Japan requisitioned the cables for the Hawiyah NGL Recovery Plant, while in the other order, Snamprogetti of Italy will use the cables for Khursaniyah Producing Facilities.
 MESC also received contracts from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan for the Bahwan fertiliser plant in Oman and from Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas for the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC)’s  Gathering Centre 28 expansion in Kuwait.
The company claims a 70 per cent share of the Saudi market and a high percentage of the GCC market.
MESC Specialized Cables was established in 1993 and operations began in the following year. Although it was established to cater to the specialised cables industry, it later expanded into low voltage and system cables. As demand kept rising, the company expanded its facilities, going through five upgrades. Yet another expansion is in the process. A training centre was established in 2003.
“Its pioneering efforts and ability to provide customers real benefits in terms of efficiency, quality, cost and swift and reliable services, along with the international awareness of the MESC brand, have paid off in a way that it has become the primary brand name in the Middle East cables industry,” a company spokesman said.
The company has a well-equipped laboratory for conducting routine and type tests according to international standard specifications. It goes through three stages, namely raw materials inspection, in-process quality control and finished cable testing.
Besides being ISO 9001:2000 certified, the company’s products are manufactured to international standards, tested and certified by institutions such as the Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation (Saso); UL (US); BSI (UK); IMQ (Italy); VDE (Germany); CSA (Canada); Kema (Netherlands); 3P (Denmark); Warrington Fire Research (UK); and Cable Technology Laboratories Inc (US).
Its products enjoy the approval of all the oil, gas and petrochemical companies in the region such as Aramco, Sabic, STC, SEC, KOC, KNPC Kuwait, Qatar Petroleum, Ministry of Electricity and Water, Qatar; Adco, Gasco and Adnoc.
They have also been approved by many major international EPC contractors, some of them being ABB/ABB Kraftwerke, ABV/Rock Group, Arabian Bemco Construction, Bechtel, Chiyoda Petrostar, CCIC, Control Contracting and Trading, Doosan HI Construction, Daelim Engineering and Enel Power, Italy.
The list of international contractors approving MESC products includes Emalab, Fluor Daniel/Fluor Arabia, Fisia Italiamapianti, Hyundai, Honeywell/CAE, Lucent Technologies, Mitsui Engineering, Siemens, Technip, Technimont Arabia, Toshiba and Toyo Engineering.
All the cables in the MESC family of industrial, instrumentation and process control cables are flame-retardant and resistant against oil, alkalines, chemicals and UV.
Fire-resistant instrumentation cables conforming to IEC 60331 are available for application in emergency shutdowns and fire and gas detection systems.
Special cables with specific requirement such as low smoke and low toxicity are also available upon request.
MESC’s family of systems cables are used for carrying audio, video, data, communication, control and alarm signals and are commonly used in hotels, shopping centres, hospitals and commercial buildings.
They are fire-resistant, meeting the IEC 60331 requirement. Special grades such as riser, low smoke or plenum are available upon request.
Another major cables category at MESC is power and control cables. Power cables, as the name suggests, are used for the transmission of electric power, while control cables are used to measure, control and regulate industrial plants and for wiring in control, protection and associated power supply circuits.
They are used in private and public distribution networks, industrial plants, oil refineries and petrochemical industries.
All the MESC power and control cables are flame-retardant and resistant against oil, alkalines, chemicals and UV.
MESC fire-resistant cables to IEC 60331 are for applications in emergency shutdowns and fire and gas detection systems. Cables with the special requirement of low smoke and low toxicity are also available upon request.