Dr. Alaa Nassif, Executive President for Royal Commission and Mohammad Al-Soaib, General Manager of the First Saudi Insulation Manufacturing Company, a wholly-owned Alghanim Industries subsidiary, with other company executives at a special ceremony in Yanbu.
SAUDI International Insulation Manufacturing Company (SIIMCO), a joint venture equally owned by Alghanim Industries and Saint-Gobain, has signed an agreement with the Yanbu Royal Commission to lease a 65,000m2 site at Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia. The lease is for a period of 30 years and will allow the development of a new plant utilizing Saint-Gobain's proprietary technology to produce stone wool, which is widely used as insulation in many parts of the construction industry. The agreement follows a comprehensive review of the environmental impact and approval for plant layouts, building structure and utilities from the Yanbu local authorities. Construction of the state-of-the-art plant is expected to begin in August 2013 and it is planned to be operational by early 2014. The plant represents an investment by SIIMCO of about 45 million euros (approximately 16.75 million KD). When completed it will employ around 200 people and have the annual capacity to produce 60,000MT of stone-wool, thermal and acoustical insulation materials in the form of slabs, rolls, stitched mats, and preformed pipe insulation annually. It will serve the technical and building insulation market segments in Saudi Arabia and other regional markets in the GCC, Egypt, Iraq and Levant. Omar Alghanim, Chief Executive of Alghanim Industries, commenting on the agreement, said: “Our joint venture investment at Yanbu will supply local and regional industrial and building areas with a reliable source of high quality insulation, which is both environmentally friendly and will assist in improving the fire safety of buildings.” “Saint-Gobain is one of the world's leading construction industry suppliers and we have worked together very successfully in the past. This is the second joint venture we have shared together in this sector, following our very successful investment in Turkey for the production of similar products. I look forward to continuing to develop and strengthen our relationship as we proceed with the plant at Yanbu.” The agreement was signed by Dr. Alaa Nassif, Executive President for Royal Commission and Mohammad Al-Soaib, General Manager of the First Saudi Insulation Manufacturing Company, a wholly-owned Alghanim Industries subsidiary, at a special ceremony in Yanbu. — SG
