Two new building materials factories – including the UAE's first gypsum plaster board facility – are on track to be commissioned next year.The two facilities – Gypsemna Company, and Porcellan Company – are being built in Abu Dhabi's Mussafah Industrial City (ICAD 2) over an area of 1 million sq m,Promoted by Jamal Al Ghurair Group, the operator of Al Khaleej Sugar, the Gulf's biggest sugar refinery in Jebel Ali, the plants are part of the group's foray into the region's booming building materials sector.

Gypsemna, which is to be commissioned by the last quarter of 2008, will have an annual capacity of 50 million sq m or 150,000 sq m gypsum boards per day, making it one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East. "By global standards too, it is one of the largest-capacity plants," says Dilip Kumar Borah, technical manager with Jamal Al Ghurair Group.Gypsemna will start with plaster boards and later add gypsum blocks. The idea is to have a diverse range within the same product family, according to Borah. Work on the project started last January and a contract for the machinery was signed in May with Germany's Grenzebach. "The project is progressing as per schedule and the equipment will start coming in from the first quarter of next year and we hope to commission the plant by the last quarter of 2008," says Borah.

The aim behind setting up the two plants was to meet the growing demand for building materials in the region. So far, gypsum plaster boards are being mported by companies in the UAE and the volumes are increasing by around 25 per cent every year as a result of increasing construction activities. Borah continues: "Having a facility locally will help companies save costs as the freight charges are very high and also one cannot transport too much board in a container because of weight and volume ratios. It will also help save time. For example, now if someone requires a particular type of board, suppliers have to either store it or have to order and wait for weeks for the delivery. With our facility next door, we will be able to meet the requirements in a day or so.

"Gypsemna will manufacture high-quality products using the latest technology. We decided to set up a large-capacity plant in order to be globally ompetitive. Moreover, since the plant is highly automated, it does not require much manpower. "From a100 per cent importing country, we want the UAE to become an exporting country. Depending on the market requirements, we aim to export around 50 to 60 per cent of our production." The world market is estimated around 8 billion sq m and is mostly concentrated around the US which is about half the market at around 3.75 billion sq m, followed by Europe, Japan, Far East and India. The company will be appointing dealers in other countries to market its products. For raw materials it will depend on natural gypsum and will source it from Iran.

Besides regular boards, the company will manufacture fireresistant boards and moisture-resistant boards. Although gypsum doesn't catch fire, Gypsemna will add some chemicals to make it more fire resistant. All the products will meet ASTM C 1396 and DIN 18180 standards. The boards will be available in dimensions ranging from 8 to 25-mm thicknesses, 600 to 1,350 mm width and 1,800 to 4,500 mm length. "We have an edge here as we can make it locally-any type and any size. We are flexible enough to make different types of products. Being based in the UAE we should be able to meet additional requirements of customers through our research and development (R&D) department," Borah says.