A company downstream to Sohar Aluminium has made a good start this year achieving orders within Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UK.

Oman Aluminium Processing Industries (OAPL) makes aluminium rods and overhead line conductors using metal from the sultanate’s only smelter. Beginning with rods production in April the company subsequently moved on to produce conductors and is now working at full capacity of 50,000 tonnes per year.

OAPL’s Saudi-based regional sales and marketing manager Nassir Ahmed Baba said rods shipments had been sent to Saudi Arabia and the UK while conductors have been supplied to contractors in Oman itself where demand is big because of large-scale power generation and distribution projects that have been initiated in the country in recent times.

Saudi buyers of OAPL rods include cable manufacturers Alfanar and Riyadh Cable. OAPL was established as an integration project for Oman Cables Industry which holds 51 per cent of its shares with Takamul Investment Company holding the remainder equity. Oman Cables is owned 34 per cent by Dutch company Draka, 24 per cent by Omani entrepreneurs and the remainder by shareholders from among the general public.

Takamul Investment Company, formed in 2006 to develop a sustainable downstream chain to support Oman’s industrial sector, has its focus on sectors including metals, petrochemicals and minerals. The company has accepted an offer to buy a 15 per cent stake in Muscat Gases Company.

Owners of Takamul Investment Company are Oman Oil Company (90 per cent), and Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority and Al Maha Strategic Industries for Investments (5 per cent each)

Southwire technology

OAPL envisions setting a global benchmark in its area of business

Technology for OAPL comes from the US firm Southwire, the largest manufacturer of conductors and cables in North America. According to OAPL, the association with Southwire will lead to the development of new products and value addition to the region’s utility business.

Currently the Omani firm makes all-aluminium conductors, steel-reinforced aluminium conductors and aluminium alloy conductors. The rods production covers aluminium and aluminium alloy rods.

The conductors follow BS 215: part 1:1970; IEC 61089 and ASTM B 231, ASTM B 232 and ASTM B 399 standards.

The rods comprise aluminium EC grade ASTM B 233-97 and equivalent standards and aluminium alloy 6201 and 6101; BS: EN 1715-2 and equivalent and BS EN 573-3 and equivalent.

“The company is confident that with shareholders’ support it will set a global benchmark in its area of business … It will generate more than 250 direct and indirect job opportunities and place the sultanate on the world map for the aluminium bars and electricity conductors industry,” a spokesman for the firm said.

OAPL reports it has received product accreditations from key customers in the GCC region, the Far East, Africa and Europe.