Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009
Gulf News
Dubai: Proclad, a leader in weld cladding, says the potential value of work over the next 30 months is $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion).
While the value of the company's worldwide order books are confidential, Yaseen Jaffer, chief executive of Proclad, told Gulf News that South East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America are the biggest markets at the moment.
"The total exposure for jobs in hand and jobs expected to [come in] in the next 12 months exceeds Dh400 million," Jaffer said.
The potential cladding work up until the end of 2011 is $1 billion.
While many other sectors of the economy have been affected by the global credit crunch and project delays, it is a very different story for businesses such as Proclad, involved in manufacturing equipment for the oil and gas sector.
The exploration of gas is becoming increasingly important as gas is needed to operate power stations more efficiently and also petrochemical manufacturing plants.
The demand for gas is expected to double by 2012 with Dubai's gas consumption alone growing by 20 per cent each year.
"Worldwide, there is a gas shortage therefore exploration of gas has not stopped. In the region here, projects have not been put on hold, for example Saudi Aramco has released one very large project and Abu Dhabi has released two projects," said Jaffer.
With this in mind, 2009, 2010 and 2011 will be very busy because of the gas shortage. Oil operating companies have taken advantage of the drop in material prices, oil prices are down and there is slower demand for oil.
Many companies are now looking to gas exploration in order to keep ahead of the game.
"On project delays, there has been a delay, not because of investment but for re-tendering projects to oil companies to take advantage of the price drop of steel. I think it's fair for oil operating companies to take advantage. Why pay last year's prices when they can get steel for 25 to 30 per cent cheaper today?" Jaffer asked.
By Suzanne Fenton, Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
