Dubai-based Al Shafar Group of Companies (ASGC) is to invest Dh175 million into an expansion of its steel fabrication plant at Dubai Industrial Park.

Al Shafar Steel Engineering (also known as Assent) has agreed a deal to double the size of its existing site by taking on an extra 1.2 million square feet of land, increasing its total footprint to 2.4 million sq ft.

The firm will build four new facilities on the extended site, spending Dh100 million on construction. The remaining Dh75m is to be invested in new machinery.

Once the new facilities are built at the end of next year, Assent will employ 2,300 staff on site, allowing it to increase its annual production capacity by up to Dh300m a year for the first two years, and by a further 15-20 per cent per year after that. Current annual production levels run at Dh800m-Dh1 billion per year.

Amr Ali Ahmed, the managing partner and chief executive of Assent, said: "Strengthening our services to our customers and catering to the rising regional demand for steel are the key reasons for our decision to expand our facilities at Dubai Industrial Park."

ASGC is a construction-foc­used group with its own contracting company, MEP and interior design divisions, a ready-mix concrete business and a large, precast concrete factory known as Hard Precast Building Systems, which also has a large production site at Dubai Industrial Park.

Saud Abu Al Shawareb, the chief operating officer of Dubai Industrial Park, said: "In recent years, the UAE has become a highly promising destination for local steel manufacturing, and the sector is an active contributor to the nation’s non-oil GDP."

A report published last week by property consultancy Cluttons stated that activity in Dubai’s industrial property market had curtailed in recent months, despite it being the busiest property sector for the previous two years.

Rents fell in some parts of the city, but remained flat year-on-year at Dubai Industrial Park at between Dh32 to Dh38 per sq ft.

 

Source: thenational.ae

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