Sharjah-based Ocean Rubber followed up a record turnover in 2008 with another strong performance in first-quarter 2009 and announced new contracts raising expectations it might overtake last year’s achievements.

Ocean Rubber recorded a turnover of Dh100 million ($27.2 million) in 2008, up 30 per cent over the previous year, and Dh25 million in the first quarter of this year, an improvement of 39 per cent over the corresponding period of 2008.
Deputy general manager Sajjad Ahmed said the company had targeted a turnover of Dh120 million for this year.
“Demand for our products and services has not declined in 2009 but rather increased, Ahmed said. “We bagged a major order in 2009 for bridge bearing pads for the Al Sowah Island works in Abu Dhabi and several rubber lining orders for Fischia Italy which is working on the Shuaiba power plant in Kuwait.”
The company had new and ongoing projects worth Dh35 million including supplies to the Hyundai RasLaffan independent water and power project in Qatar, the Qatar Foundation’s Education City, Cristal Saudi Arabia, a Saudi Aramco offshore project and the King Abdul Aziz Naval Base.
“The economic downturn has given us the opportunity to review, adjust and correct our organisation’s strategies and working procedures to ensure we maintain our market-leader status and continue the momentum we gained over 20 years of service to various industries,” remarked Ahmed.
Ocean Rubber is supplier to the oil and gas, construction and marine sectors as well as providing solutions to the material handling requirements of various industries including cement production and quarrying. The company is ISO 9001:2000-certified and has 600 people on its rolls.

Significant year
Year 2008 was a significant year for the company not only because it had a record turnover but also because it began operations on newly expanded facilities in Al Ghail, Ras Al Khaimah. The new facilities, built on an area of a half-million square feet, were used to implement major projects such as the rubberlining of 38 steel vessels of 4.5 m dia and 12.3 m high with special WRAS-approved food-grade ebonite. The work was done for Degremont, France, for their Barka desalination plant in Oman and completed on schedule.
Another prestigious project it executed was the polychloroprene lining of riser pipes, clamps and field joints for National Petroleum Construction Company, Abu Dhabi, working on an Adma-Opco project.
Ocean Rubber’s ocean fender systems for marine and offshore applications were exported to projects in the US, Africa, the CIS and the Middle East.
The company’s pipe sea division was busy throughout the year with the production of a special continuous seal (without joints) for GRP, plastic and steel pipes.
Manufactured in record numbers were bridge bearing pads, expansion joints and building protection systems such as corner guards and speed humps.
The material handling division designed, fabricated, erected and commissioned a loading and unloading system for calcined lime for Qatar Steel and long-distance conveyors for Raysut Cement in Oman.
“Our products such as conveyor rubber belts, conveyor rollers and high-tensile steel screen panels maintained market leadership despite tight competition from lower-priced and inferior products from China,” said Ahmed.