SALALAH -- United National Factory for Fiberglass (UNFCF) LLC is all set to roll out its large range of products in polycrete (jacking) pipes, glass reinforced plastic (GRP) pipes and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes from its factory in Sohar. The company, which is a joint venture between Omani and Kuwaiti companies, is eying the opportunities of large scale developments going on in Oman. The company showcased its ambitious products at a recently concluded International Industry Exhibition in Salalah in a bid to attract prospective clients soon after the product approval from competent authorities. The company's Kuwaiti partner, Al Watani Factory for Fiberglass, is a major name in production of GRP, PE and HDPE pipes. With a production facility of 100,000 square metres, the company holds the distinction of being one of the world's largest producers of polycrete pipes.
"Al Watani's Oman journey began in 2010 while working for a company involved in doing drainage project in the Sultanate. The clients were quite happy with the quality of pipes supplied by the Kuwaiti company and thus started the idea of setting up a company unit in collaboration with a local business house," said P S Ramakrishnan, Polycrete Production Manager of United National Factory for Fibreglass. An ISO 9001:2008 certified company, Al Watani was established in Kuwait and has grown steadily over the last 30 years and serves the composite industry locally, neighboring GCC countries as also to many other countries. "Al-Watani achieved yet another milestone in 2012 with entering into a joint venture to set up a factory in Sohar Industrial Area with the name of United National Factory Company for the Fiberglass LLC covering 120,000 sq metres of fully equipped with state of art technologies and machineries to serve the composite industry more widely," said Ramakrishnan.
Polycrete division produces in compliance with ASTM D6783, DIN 54815-1 and 2 and international standard complete range of long lasting and corrosion resistant pipes and manholes for sewer system. Polycrete jacking pipes provides a best solution for Microtunneling technology and the production range is from diametre 250mm to 2250mm. Polycrete manholes has a range from diametre 1000mm to 3600mm. The production capacity for polycrete pipes is 150 meters per shift or 300 metres per day, while for polycrete manholes, it is 10 pieces per shift or 20 pieces per day. The company's GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) division is equipped with continuous filament winding machine and produces in compliance with BS 5480 in a range from diametre 300mm to 2600mm at the rate of 52 metres per hour of high quality gravity and pressure pipes and fittings for various applications qualified and tested to international standards. The company's GRP pipe's production capacity is 456 meters per shift or 912 metres per day.
The HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) division produces profiled pipe in a range from 500mm to 2000mm and manholes from 1000mm to 2000mm in compliance with DIN 16961-1 & 2 on modern production equipment for various applications qualified and tested to international standards. The production capacity for HDPE profile pipes is 80 metres per shift or 160 metres per day, while HDPE manholes production capacity is five pieces per shift or 10 pieces per day. All the products of UNFCF for Fiber glass are likely to hit the Omani market in another two months as due consultations and approval processes are underway, said Ramkrishnan.
Oman Daily Observer 2013
