Contracts with Jubail and Yanbu Royal Commissions highlight Amiantit's global leadership of pipe manufacturing industry

Dammam, 30 October 2004 - Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company has been awarded a contract worth SAR 27,770,048 by the Royal Commission for Jubail for the supply of 6228 linear metres of pipes to transport seawater, announced Eng. Fareed Al-Khalawi, CEO and Managing Director of Amiantit.

The pipes, with a diameter up to 4000mm, will be made from fibreglass reinforced polyester (GRP). Amiantit is the only company worldwide that commercially produces such a huge size. The advantages of Amiantit Flowtite GRP products are that they are strong, durable and corrosion resistant which guarantees long term systems operation performance with minimum operational/maintenance costs, and there is no need for periodic corrosion survey and cathodic protection as is required for steel pipes and tanks. They are also economical in terms of installation and and life cycle costs.

Amiantit is the sole owner of the world patents for Flowtite, the most important technological process used in the manufacture of glass reinforced polyester (GRP) pipes. Flowtite GRP pipes and fittings are used globally in pressure / gravity systems, for raw water pumping mains, drinking water supply pipelines, sewerage force mains, pipelines in waste water treatment plants, slip lining / re-lining for rehabilitation of networks, pipelines in desalination plants, sub-aqueous applications, and many industrial applications.

Earlier this year, Amiantit Fiberglass Industries Ltd (AFIL), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company, acheived a world record with the production of a four meters diameter GRP pipe, the first to be made using an automated process. The pipe was designed and produced by the Flowtite process at the AFIL plant in Dammam.

Since 1982 Amiantit has been supplying 3700 mm diameter GRP pipes for in-take and discharge of seawater for cooling purposes at the Royal Commission project in Yanbu Industrial City, where the latest project utilized pipes with a total length of 11,000 linear metres.

Contract awards by the Jubail and Yanbu Royal Commissions fully demonstrate Amiantit's dominance of the pipe manufacturing industry, not only in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region, but also worldwide. For other projects Amiantit has supplied approximately one million metres of pipes with various diameters for water supply networks in Spain, Argentina and Germany. In addition, several projects involving pipe diameters ranging between 3000 mm and 3,700 mm have been supplied to the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bangladesh.

Today, Amiantit is a global group of companies with 33 manufacturing facilities in 21 countries worldwide, and is internationally respected as a world class manufacturer and recognized as the industry leader in research, development and ownership of pipe manufacturing technologies.

As a strategic objective, Amiantit has recently turned its attention to the demand for GRP and GRE corrosion resistant piping systems and storage tanks by the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, and has within the last twelve months opened two full-scale production plants to meet the needs of the energy sector, one of which is the SAR 30 million Epoxy Pipe Production Plant (Amipox) in Dammam which produces high performance glass reinforced epoxy pipes (GRE).

The other plant is Amiantit Fiberglass Industries India Pvt. Ltd., (AFIPL), a joint venture manufacturing facility in Goa, that is currently servicing the largest ever order for 5000 single wall GRP storage tanks for Reliance Industries, one of India's leading private petroleum companies. In addition AFIPL has recently been awarded a contact by Dutch oil major, the Shell group, for 2000 double wall GRP underground storage for Shell India.

-Ends-

© Press Release 2005