DI bolsters construction material portfolio

Dubai Investments (DI), a major investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market, has reinforced the production capabilities of its subsidiaries dealing in building materials amid accelerating trends in the real estate and construction sector across the UAE and the region. This comes in the wake of significant orders and project wins for 18 subsidiaries of DI, involved in the manufacturing of building materials and construction products. DI subsidiaries such as Glass LLC, Emirates Building Systems and Dubai Cranes have reported a number of new projects across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among others. Notable projects won by DI subsidiaries include glass orders for Dubai Design, Habtoor Hotel, Masdar office building in Dubai, Credit Lebanese HQ in Beirut, steel structures for Riyadh Public Transport, three petrochemical projects for Saudi Aramco, end-to-end steel building solutions for FIFA 2022 stadiums in Qatar, petrochemical projects in Oman as well as residential and airport developments in the UAE; and standard, overhead crane kits for ongoing projects with EMAL, DUBAL and Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA). The construction activity across the UAE has witnessed a major upswing this year, with projects worth $46 billion awarded in 2014 alone, a significant rise from $38 billion last year. A vast majority of these contracts are in the residential sector, and the uptrend in the construction sector is set to boost the countrys GDP (gross domestic product) for 2014 by four percent to approximately $404 billion, up from $390 billion in 2013. Abdulaziz bin Yagub Al-Serkal, GM, DI, said: 2014 has been a momentous year for DIs business growth in the real estate and construction sector. The construction industry has always been a key source in driving growth for the UAEs economy and the current upswing, especially in residential projects, has led to unprecedented demand for quality building materials and innovations, which offers us a huge growth opportunity. He added: High demand as a result of the construction boom in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and across the rest of the Middle East is also placing added demand on the capacities of our companies dealing in building materials. We are confident that the solid demand in the construction sector will continue in the foreseeable future and we are geared to cater to the required capacity. In line with this, some of the DI subsidiaries have bolstered their production capacities. Emirates Building Systems have announced major expansion plans in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, given the escalating demand for steel structures for infrastructure projects, commercial and residential buildings as well as the oil and gas sector in the Kingdom and elsewhere in the region. DI subsidiary Emirates Extruded Polystyrene also announced plans to double its production capacity in the coming two years to approximately 2.4 million square meters per year, buoyed by the burgeoning demand for its unique extruded polystyrene sheets across the UAE and the other GCC markets. Dubai Cranes & Technical Services LLC, recently announced, opened the first-of-its-kind crane storage and assembly facility in the region to cater to the heightened demand for cranes across the GCC and MENA region and Saudi American Glass announced a 50 percent increase in its production capacity to 1.4 million square meters.

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DI bolsters construction material portfolio