Beirut (APD) - Kuwait Foundry Company announced that it will start operations at its $230 million new plant in early 2007 with an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons, the Kuwait-based daily Al-Watan reported Tuesday.
"The new plant, considered the largest in the Middle East, will replace the existing plant which has a production capacity of 25,000 tons per year," Adel Rasheed Al Bader, chairman of Kuwait Foundry told Al-Watan.
"State-of-the-art new machinery will be purchased designed to produce less pollution ... and we will cover the needs of the region and we will sell our products on world markets," he exclaimed affirming that his company is already receiving a great number of orders for the products of the new plant.
"We intend to sell all the machinery and ovens of the old plant and we expect to realize an income of KD 500,000 from the sale," Al Bader added.
He further indicated that another new factory where Kuwait Foundry has a 5% stake will be opened in April, 2007 in Bahrain.
Established in 1973, Kuwait Foundry manufactures all kinds of cast-iron products including cast-iron pipes and pipe fittings, the company had sales of $6.8 million in 2004.
Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, Kuwait Foundry shares started a slow downslope in October, 2004 after they reached a peak of KD 2.77. The share price fell again to KD 2.08 on August 2, 2005 after a small improvement in mid-January, 2005. No trading was recorded of Kuwait Foundry shares since August 2. [SN-FC]
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2005
