Since coming on stream in 2006, Saudi Pultrusion Industry (SPI) has made strong strides in its field, having won contracts linked to Saudi Aramco, Marafiq and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) for its fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) products.
The company, a pioneer in pultrusion manufacturing in the Middle East, plans to add more production lines by the end of this year to boost its current annual production capacity of 1,000 tonnes.
It says it will also concentrate on cooling tower structures and cable ladders and trays.
“The company’s strategy in 2009 is to expand market penetration in the GCC region via assigning distribution networks in Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE and we are now interviewing potential distributors in these countries,” says general manager Mohammed Hamdan.
“The company is increasing manpower in all directions from technical staff to engineers and sales staff,” he added.
The company’s main products are gratings, handrails, ladders with or without a safety cage, and platforms.
The company also manufactures cooling tower profiles and staircases.
It produced around 500 tonnes of different profiles in 2008 and targets production and sales of a thousand tonnes this year having received many contracts and expecting more.

Hard marketing
“Over the past two years of hard marketing, we were successful in getting approvals from Aramco for most of their sewage treatment plants (STPs),” said Hamdan.
The company has also received approvals from the Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu for use in factories in its industrial areas well as approvals from the SWCC, Sabic and most of the cooling towers manufacturers.
SPI has completed the main part of a contract for the Rahima STP that required it to supply a large quantity of gratings, handrails, platforms, ladders and staircases through contractor Nesma. The project is being expanded to build three 35 m bridges made totally of FRP for which SPI will be a supplier.
The company has also supplied its products to the Odaliyah STP.
It recently won a contract for the Dhahran STP through Al Suwaidi Contracting Company and is in the process of supplying ladders to Jeddah Municipality through contractors. The company has so far delivered 3,000 linear metres of different sizes of ladders and accompanying material.
It recently received an order from King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals to fabricate platform systems.
All through 2008 and continuing into this year, SPI has been working on replacing steel ladders including safety cages with anti-rust FRP ladders and accompanying handrails, platforms and gratings.
It recently delivered a ladder system to King Abdullah University as well as a complete grating system for the Khurais crude oil project.
It has been specified and approved by contractors for Marafiq’s independent water and power project, Phase 1.
Close to 10 per cent of the 2008 production went overseas to Bahrain, Dubai and Iran.

Maintenance-free
Highlighting FRP as a product for these times, Hamdan says: “With the current world economic crisis, the cost of maintenance is an important factor for most clients and contractors. The solution is to use maintenance-free products such as FRP, especially in sensitive projects such as water desalination plants, STPs, chemical plants and oil refineries where any stoppages in operations could hinder the delivery of services.”
Pultruded products are considered an ideal replacement material for metals in applications where the maintenance of metal would prove expensive and in critical areas where access is limited.
Comparing FRP products to aluminium and steel, the company highlights that pultruded products offer superior insulation qualities being 600 to 800 times more thermally insulative; they are dimensionally stable with one third the expansion and contraction; are stronger with 50 per cent more tensile strength; and lighter, weighing 20 to 30 per cent less.
And compared to steel, it goes on to say, pultruded products are corrosion resistant, as pultrusions do not oxidise or corrode; are much lighter, weighing 75 per cent less; have better insulation qualities, being 150 to 200 times more thermally insulative; and are stronger, with up to 30 per cent more tensile strength than mild steel.”
Part of the Abdullatif M Al Arfaj and Brothers Holding Company, SPI manufactures fiber reinforced plastic under a technical licence from Pacific Composites, a pioneer in pultrusion in Australia.