Manar Al Omran plans a million-square-metre industrial complex in Saudi Arabia to manufacture scaffolding and formwork for domestic projects and export markets.
Saudi scaffolding and formwork company Manar Al Omran has announced plans for a SR1.2 billion (approximately £242 million) industrial complex to expand its manufacturing operations and supply overseas markets.
The MAO Industrial Complex will cover approximately one million square metres in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, according to the company’s announcement dated 2 September. Plans include five factories, a corporate headquarters and accommodation for 7,000 employees.
MAO says the development will bring the manufacture of scaffold systems and their components onto one site, including steel processing, casting and protective finishes. Production is intended to serve Saudi construction and energy projects, as well as export customers.
Scaffold systems and components
The largest part of the development is a 750,000-square-metre scaffolding and steel complex. MAO says it will include production facilities for Ringlock, Cuplock and scaffold tubes, alongside engineered formwork and structural steel fabrication.
Shot blasting, powder coating and hot-dip galvanising are also included in the plans. A separate foundry will manufacture grey and ductile iron castings for scaffold fittings and components.
The company puts daily output for the scaffolding and steel complex at 1,200 tonnes. Its announcement does not give a breakdown between scaffold products and other steel work.
Chairman Maher Al Harbi said: “When this complex is complete, every tube, every rosette, every cup, every casting and every formwork panel a project needs will come from one fence in the Eastern Province, made in Saudi Arabia, by MAO, with nothing outsourced.”
Export ambitions
An aluminium extrusion plant with eight presses is planned to produce sections for scaffolding and other industrial uses. MAO gives its annual capacity as approximately 200,000 tonnes.
The wider development will also include plastic profile and sheet production, together with an engineering research and development office.
The investment sets out MAO’s ambition to manufacture more of the equipment it supplies through its scaffolding rental and services business. The company says it is targeting customers across the Gulf and export markets worldwide, although the announcement does not identify UK or European supply plans.
Scaffmag recently reported on MAO’s 67.40m free-standing scaffold in Dammam, which the company built using its own Ringlock system.
A completion date or timetable for bringing the complex into production has not been given in the announcement.
