Dubai, July 21st, 2007 (WAM) - Alumco, a specialized aluminiumfacade contractor and major glass manufacturer, has announcedthe start of its new Dh 55 million glass processing factory locatedat Dubai Investments Park, built on a total area of 10,000 squaremeters, and furnished with state of the art machineries.

With this opening Alumco now has a daily total production capacityof 2,000 square meters insulated glass per day and 1,000 squaremeters of frameless glass.

Samer Barakat, Managing Director, Alumco, said: "The openingof this factory will further consolidate the company's statusas a leading provider of premium quality products and world classservices. We are sure that the new glass factory will give asignificant momentum to our operations and expanding our businessscope."Haitham Al-Khatib, Executive Manager, Alumco said: "The factorywill be operating with the state of the art glass processingmachinery, which includes a Lisec cutting line, glass edgingline, a Tamglass tempering and insulating line, a laminationline and an automatic silk screen machine. We are currently undergoingstudies to further expand our production capacity." The Lisec cutting line which can produce 4,000 square metersdaily is mainly a robotic cutting line that can handle Jumbosize stock sheets of 6000 x 3300 mm.

The Tamglass tempering line (Pro E) which has a total daily capacityof 2,000 square meters can heat treat the sputter coated lowE glass and all types of special coatings, with convection andradiation methods, it can heat treat a glass panel up to 6000x 2800 mm.

The Lisec double glazing unit is a fully automatic line thatcan produce insulating glass units of 3500 x 2700 mm or larger,and has a daily production capacity of 2000 square meters. Thisline is a fully automatic line equipped with a robotic sealantand an edge deletion machine for the sputter coated low E glass.

The factory is also fitted with state of the art polishing machines.

"With billions of dollars worth of real estate projects currentlycoming up in the UAE and the region, we see tremendous potentialfor expanding our business. The UAE last year witnessed morethan US$300 billion worth of active real estate projects, mostlyin Dubai and Abu Dhabi and other Emirates. As we have alreadybecome an established player, we see spontaneous growth in thefollowing years," said Barakat.

Among other factors that indicate favourable growth trends forthe property sector is mortgage financing, which in the UAE showsat least a 50% year on year growth. This is a key growth factorto the real estate market which in turn will increase demandon our products, explained Barakat.