Al Ghurair to build gypsum factory By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter Published: July 14, 2007, 23:31 Dubai: Jamal Al Ghurair, the prominent UAE businessman who operates the Gulf's biggest sugar refinery in Jebel Ali, said he is building the country's first gypsum plaster board factory to supply products to the construction sector. The plant, located in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi, is part of the Jamal Al Ghurair Group's foray into the building products sector. Al Ghurair is also building a factory at the same site to make porcelain tiles. The two facilities, Gyp-semna Company LLC and Porcellan Company LLC, cover one million square metres and will be ready in mid-2008. "We have started these new projects to make important construction materials available locally," Al Ghurair told Gulf News. He did not disclose the group's financial investment in the two factories. 

The gypsum factory will have a capacity to make 50 million square metres of plaster board, used mostly in interior drywalls, per year and create 150 new jobs. "This is the largest gypsum plaster board factory in the Middle East. We will be able to export half of our capacity after fulfilling the local demand," Al Ghurair said. Demand for gypsum board has been growing between 20 and 25 per cent per year for the last four to five years, the company said. "The local market will be taking up more of our products in the coming years as demand is picking up," Al Ghurair said. Demand for porcelain tiles has been growing nearly 10 per cent annually in the last five years. Porcellan will have the capacity to make 18 million square metres of tiles per year in the first phase and will eventually be expanded by similar capacity. The facility will employ more than 600 people. Raw materials for the plants will be sourced from India, Pakistan, Iran and the UAE.