Gulf Construction Online

Regional News

The gaskets ... Thermiculite 835 filler used.

Update

01 January 2009

Seal of approval for UK firm
Flexitallic of the UK has been awarded a certificate of appreciation by JGC of Japan, for its ‘significant contribution’ to the Petro Rabigh olefin plants in Saudi Arabia.

A joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Company, the project was scheduled to start-up at the end of last year.
Working together with JGC, Flexitallic supplied spiral wound gaskets filled with Thermiculite 835 filler, for the fluid catalytic cracker. Thermiculite enables the cracker to perform to its highest efficiency due to the ability of Thermiculite to maintain high sealing characteristics in the hostile operating environment.
Thermiculite has outstanding stability to high temperature and aggressive chemicals, the company says. Thermiculite materials operate in areas where graphite-based products cannot cope due to graphite’s poor resistance to oxidation, it says, adding that a unique feature of Thermiculite is that it does not oxidise and can seal for the lifetime of the joint.
Price drop boost Landbridge chances
Saudi Arabia is considering relaunching its Landbridge Railway project, on the back of recent declines in the cost of building materials, especially steel, according to reports.
The cost of the project was earlier estimated at earlier SR25 billion ($6.66 billion).
The project’s supervisory committee was expected to meet shortly in Dammam to discuss the project's re-launch, the reports added.
The Landbridge railway project will connect the eastern and western parts of the kingdom.
Falling demand hits plant launch
Oman’s Shadeed Iron and Steel has deferred the opening of a new plant by six months as the industry reels from production cuts and expansion delays caused by falling demand for steel, a report said.
The company has had delayed the commissioning of a key plant in Sohar until the middle of the year because of the slump in prices, Dr B N Singh, the company’s managing director, told The National newspaper.
The $750 million plant, which would produce 1.5 million tonnes of steel billet per year as part of an integrated steel-making operation, was supposed to open this month, after being originally scheduled to begin production last August.
“It was very depressing in the end of November and December,” Dr Singh told the UAE newspaper. “Some delays we have done intentionally because the market is not very good.”
Schindler moves for Marmaray
Schindler is to supply 59 escalators to one of the biggest infrastructure projects currently under construction: a historic undersea railway link under the Bosporus, the strait that divides the Turkish city of Istanbul, linking Europe with Asia Minor.
The contract for the Marmaray project in Turkey – being executed by Japan’s Taisei Corporation – includes the supply of nine elevators for stations along the line. The tunnel is being built using 11 prefabricated tunnel elements which are submerged and then connected on the sea bed, at depths of up to 56 m.
The first escalators will be delivered this year, with the last expected to be fitted by 2012. The company is responsible for delivery, installation supervision and handing over, as well as the maintenance and the training of operating people.
Medical city gears for launch
Work on the first phase of the King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, has been completed and the project will be launched later this year.
Ministry of Health spokesman Dr Khalid Mirghalani said that the medical city would consist of three hospitals with a total of 1,500 beds when complete.
The first phase covered an area of 850,000 sq m.
The ministry plans to make it the largest medical city in the Middle East, with state-of-the-art facilities. The city will serve not only citizens and expatriates but also Haj and Umrah pilgrims.
The project includes a 500-bed specialist hospital and another 500-bed maternity and children’s hospital. Makkah's 500-bed Al Nur Specialist Hospital will be part of the medical city.
The first phase of the specialist hospital will open with 100 beds in the second half of this year, offering several specialities including a tumour centre.
Expansion of mosque under way
AN EXPANSION of the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, aimed at accommodating 500,000 more worshippers, will start by the middle of this month, Saudi newspapers reported.
Madinah’s mayor Abdul Aziz Al Hussein was quoted as saying that the new expansion of the mosque would be the second largest after the first in 1986 which created space for one million worshippers at peak times.
Worth SR4.7 billion ($1.25 billion), the expansion includes 182 huge umbrellas to protect 200,000 worshippers, expanding the eastern courtyard to create an additional capacity for 70,000 worshippers, new toilets and boarding stations, three new tunnels, new streets and pavements, and electrification of the new areas around the mosque. When completed, the project would create space for 500,000 worshippers over an area of 137,400 sq m, giving the mosque the capacity to handle a total of 1.5 million worshippers at a time.