01 November 2019

USG Middle East (USG Boral ME) aims to change the way buildings are designed and built in the region and become the premier regional supplier for ceiling systems and drywall partitions.

The hospitality and luxury residential sector is one of the major segments the Dammam-based company serves, accounting for a considerable percentage of its annual revenue, Musbah Moqbel, regional marketing manager of USG Boral Middle East, tells Gulf Construction.

Other key segments that are as important include educational, transportation and healthcare sectors, to which USG Boral ME offers an integrated range of products and solutions.

For the hospitality and luxury residential sector, the company produces a range of solutions meeting the specifications and the latest design requirements.  These solutions comprise ceilings systems, standard, specialty and acoustic; drywall partition assemblies; interior finishes; metal framing and substrates for wet areas and exterior envelopes. 

USG Boral ME has also released a special design guide for the hotels segment to help architects and contractors in selecting the right materials during the different design and construction phases, Moqbel says.

He points out that some ionic hospitality and luxury residential projects are still using blockwork instead of gypsum board drywall, despite the numerous advantages of the latter product: “There is a great advantage in using gypsum board drywall and suspended ceilings in terms of achieving higher privacy for acoustic properties with thinner walls that save space,” he says. “Also, as gypsum board drywall is light in weight, it offers a more economical building design for value engineering, achieving 32 per cent reduction in construction time, 21 per cent saving in the usage of structural concrete, and 20 and 17 per cent reduction in superstructure and substructure costs respectively.”

This apart, gypsum board drywall can improve the transmittance of WiFi signals through hotel walls for 5 GHz WiFi propagation, by up to seven times more compared to a block wall of equal acoustic performance.

Another key sector that USG Boral ME has made significant inroads into is the cinemas and entertainment facilities market.  These projects require products offering high acoustic performance with high structural stability in design and fire resistance – all of which can be achieved with USG Boral ME’s portfolio of ceilings systems and drywall assemblies as well as other 334 UL-listed assemblies, Moqbel points out.

“Currently, we are working on several cinemas and entertainment projects in the GCC region, especially in the Saudi market. We are proud to be the first supplier for all cinemas and entertainment projects in the region as we are the only single-source local manufacturer for acoustical ceiling and drywall assemblies,” he adds.

USG Boral ME’s product portfolio includes acoustical ceiling tiles and panels; metal ceiling and partition systems; plasterboards and substrates; and joint compound finishes and acoustical sealants. Many of these products have high recycled content helping projects achieve additional LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) points.

The company has recently allocated additional capital expenditure to broaden its range of ceilings systems by introducing 12 new specialty ceiling designs offering virtually unlimited designs options, he says. “We are investing in a new specialty ceilings line to supply the local and regional growing ceiling demand,” Moqbel adds.

USG Middle East was founded in 1985 and now has operational plants in Saudi Arabia (Dammam), Turkey as well as an affiliate in Oman. It has sales and technical offices throughout the GCC and the Middle East.

“We are working closely to comply with Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision to increase the local content and to be the premier supplier for ceilings systems and drywall partitions,” Moqbel says.

USG Boral serves more than 25 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region with current expansion plans for mid and West Africa.

USG Boral is very active in the hospitality and luxury residential segment.  Some of the major projects in this sector include the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Holiday Inn Hotel and Jabal Omar in Saudi Arabia; Movenpick Hotel refurbishment in Bahrain; Khasab Hotel in Oman; Intercontinental Hotel, Ritz Carlton Hotel and Waldorf Astoria in Qatar; and  Al Forsan Hotel, Atlantis Hotel, Palm Jumeirah, Bluewater Hospitality Bridgeway Hotel, Business Park and Lake Hotel in the Burj Dubai complex, Citymax Hotel, Business Bay Emirates Palace Hotel, Ibis Hotel-Dubai, Intercontinental Fujairah Resort, Madinat Jumeirah, Novotel Hotel (Al Barsha and Fujairah), Park Palace, Taj Exotica, Tecom Hotel & Apartment Tower, Tiara Hotel and Viceroys Hotel, all in the UAE.

Elsewhere, it has supplied the Acapulco Hotel, Aphrodite Hotel and Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cyprus; Hilton Dead Sea & Spa Resort and Beach Hotel in Jordan; as well as several mega projects in Turkey including Ela Quality Resort Hotel, Bilgili Holdings’ West Blocks, Blox Halic, Calista Luxury Resort Hotel, Hilton Dalaman Golf Resort & Spa, Hilton Hotel in Dalaman, Marriott Hotel, Tugcan Hotel and Zumrut Hotel.

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