Headline is working on a Grand project
01 JULY 2001
For a company to establish itself from scratch within less than a decade in the highly competitive structural steel business is rare.
Headline Engineering LLC, currently operating from one of Dubai's industrial areas has literally forged a reputation in nine short years of operations to become one of the UAE's most active diversified heavy engineering, fabrication, pressure vessel manufacturer, machining and assembly organisations.
Headline is currently working on the Grand Hyatt Project where 1,442 tonnes of steel have been fabricated in a complex lattice work of trusses for the ballrooms, bridges and entrance canopy for Ssang Yong. The company is detailing, fabricating and erecting the structure which acts as a canopy, load-bearing area and architectural feature for the hotel. More than 20 weeks of exhaustive detailing work has gone into the steel fabrication using 3D software.
According to general manager, Umar Whitehead, company growth is such that later this year Headline Engineering will move into new $2 million purpose-built facilities at Jebel Ali Free Zone.
"The new facility will be state-of-the-art and four times larger than the existing facilities and include a machine shop, dedicated bays for pressure vessels, structural steel, and special projects. Two bays will be fitted with 2 x 15 tonne overhead cranes and two bays with 2 x 10 tonne overhead cranes. In addition, there will be dedicated maintenance shops, painting and automatic shot-blasting facilities. In total there will be four bays contained with a covered area of 8,000 sq m," said Whitehead.
Whitehead, a mechanical engineer by profession joined Headline Engineering in April 2000 having enjoyed a successful career in Schlumberger where he was responsible for international procurement of mechanical equipment, technical operations, and purchasing.
By building a strong culture of organisation under the managing director Mohammed Iqbal with great emphasis on quality control and safety, Headline Engineering has scaled up its operations from being a medium-sized steel fabricator into a major player.
According to Whitehead, a 'corps of engineers' approach to the steel business is prevalent within the company with a "can-do" approach that translates into proactive services for clients and a culture of sustained endeavour to meet deadline and schedules.
With ISO 9001 certification and dual API 12D (field welded tanks) and 12F (shop welded tanks) certification for the design and fabrication of API storage vessels (apparently there are only four such accreditations outside of North America), Headline Engineering has built its reputation on quality and hard work. Such is the level of business that the company is now working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and confidently anticipates 40 per cent growth in 2001.
The company supplies fabricated products to all sectors of the heavy engineering and process industries including steel mills, cement, petrochemical, oil and gas, environmental and power generation as well as providing the structural steel for many of the famous high-rise buildings in the UAE.
The fabrication department is capable of handling any size and type of fabrication by utilising the latest welding techniques and equipment including fully automatic submerged-arc, semi-automatic MIG, TIG and manual welding.
Headline Engineering adopts an integrated approach to solving structural design needs using the latest steel analysis techniques in coordination with the client. This includes shop and erection drawings interpreting client designs and specifications with all detailing in accordance with all international provisions and applicable codes.
All drawings undergo rigorous checking before release for fabrication using design software to meet fast-track project needs. The company has a full time staff of engineering design and detailing professionals with years of experience in structural drafting and detailing and able to handle .dgn, .dwg, and .dxf file formats. Headline can also send and receive CAD files by hardcopy or electronically via e-mail, diskette, CD-ROM, and through an FTP site integrated to its web page.
Whitehead considers he has the best steel detailer in the Middle East with consistent dimensional accuracy in fabrication to within one millimetre. The company's engineering department provides a full range of technical services, utilising computerised estimating, designing, planning, scheduling and project management programs to ensure that customer requirements are dealt with efficiently.
Headline Engineering also has technology to saw, shape, burn (oxy-acetylene and plasma), roll, break, blast, shear, punch, and form steel. This provides one distinct single-source advantage for clients. As well as carbon steel, the company also works with stainless steel, aluminium, brass and other exotic metals like cladded steel.
Headline Engineering has an erection unit for structures such as office buildings, distribution centres, process and industrial buildings. The erection crews work with the design teams to maintain a smooth workflow for all steel erection projects and the strictest safety regulations.
As well as working on power and desalination plants, the company is associated with several major landmark projects including Emirates Tower and the new Grand Hyatt Hotel.
The completed Emirates Tower project, standing at 55 and 56 storeys of office and hotel is the UAE's tallest structure with 2,000 tonnes of structural steel fabricated by Headline Engineering in the form of column, trusses, tie beams and braces.
The company also worked on Burj Al Arab at a height of 321 m where around 1,600 tonnes of structural steel, steel joists, columns, trusses, tie beams, braces and miscellaneous steel were fabricated by Headline Engineering.
