Bahrain’s top manufacturer of precast concrete components is in the final stages of completing major structures in the kingdom.

Projects that Bahrain Precast Concrete Company (BPC) will soon be completing include the Police Fort where it is involved in the design, production, delivery and erection of precast foundations, columns, normal beams, pre-stressed inverted T beams and 250 mm thick insulated load-bearing panels as well as internal load-bearing panels, PC staircases and hollowcore slabs of thickness from 150 mm to 320 mm.
Two other major projects are a twin 24-storey PSS building in Seef District and a 13-storey precast building in Hoora.
The company is also working on HH twin towers of 16 storeys, a car park at Gulf Hotel and an elegant round-shaped commercial building on Exhibition Road.
BPC manufactures and supplies all types of precast concrete components which include but are  not limited to façade elements, precast hollowcore slabs and glass-reinforced concrete.
It was the first to design, produce and erect precast components in Bahrain.
“Since the beginning, BPC has been a major supplier of precast elements in Bahrain. It produces almost 35 per cent of the precast products consumed in Bahrain and continues to maintain its lead despite so many other new players in the field,” said general manager Goran Hogberg.
“BPC is producing and erecting almost three times the precast elements it did three years ago,” he added.
The company recently added the precast structure system and precast building system to its range of services claiming it is first in the Gulf and probably in the Middle East to introduce these systems.
BPC has so far limited its sales to the Bahrain market with only occasional exports of hollowcore slabs to Saudi Arabia. Precast concrete products are bulky, heavy and normally tailor-made, needing special packaging and handling for long-distance delivery. This makes the product uneconomical for long-distance travelling and hence exports are not common, it explained.
As a special service it can offer a full quality control report for individual projects containing casting dates, the cube test and other quality checks. This service is agreed with the sales department. The company continuously trains and develops its employees through in-house and external training programmes.
The company’s growth strategy includes providing precast solutions in place of conventional construction and increasing awareness of precast concrete products by conducting seminars for consultants, contractors and university students.
Bahrain is a small market with about eight precast manufacturers, a situation Hogberg said created “unhealthy competition.”
Among the challenges was non-availability of most basic materials used in precast concrete products making it necessary to import them, he said.
“Recently Bahrain faced a shortage of cement and aggregates. This resulted in a slowdown of construction of all running projects and hence a reduction of production volumes of the precast industry.
“Bahrain recently experienced a sudden increase in the prices of raw materials of the construction industry. This resulted in an escalation of the cost of running projects.”
The official also cited a shortage of skilled labour throughout the region.
The company has built plants in Dubai (1993) and Abu Dhabi and Qatar (both 2002).
Some of the major projects it completed in Bahrain are the RUF automobile assembly complex, the Muharraq Municipality Building, a 11-storey PSS building in Um Al Hassan, the 22-storey Al Zamil Tower , the City Center, Precast buildings for the National Guard, a building of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the 18-storey Park Tower in the Diplomatic Area, a medical college in Busaiteen, the Aviation Tower, the Toyota Car Park, the Ali Kanoo Health Centre and the Shaikh Khalifa Sports Sadium.