MTE supplied carpets for all the suites at the Burj Al Arab.
Kasktas Arabia breaking new ground
01 December 2001
Kasktas Arabia has won five contracts together worth over a million dollars in Makkah and Madinah this year and the ground engineering specialist is now looking towards better business prospects in 2002.
"We specialise in piling and shoring work," says Idris Demircioglu, the general manager of the Jeddah-based firm. "Over the past last year we have carried out various piling and shoring projects within the region and we have won some new projects in Makkah and Madinah. Overall, there was limited activity in the construction sector but we hope this will improve in the coming year. To this end, we aim to be more competitive and win more projects.
Kasktas Arabia, a joint venture between Xenel of Saudi Arabia and Kasktas of Turkey, was set up in 1983 to tap into the foundation engineering and geo-technical construction markets in the region. The Jeddah-based company has a regional office in Madinah and commands an annual turnover that varies between $2-10 million.
"With our fully-owned equipment, highly-skilled management and technical personnel, Kasktas Arabia is fully capable to fulfilling every requirement in foundation work and geotechnical engineering," Demircioglu says.
Elaborating on the projects the company has won, Demircioglu says: "We have just been awarded a contract on a Madinah residential and commercial complex being built by Saudi ABV. Our contract - worth $650,000 and involving excavation, shoring, piling, pile load and integrity testing and pile head breaking works - is currently in the mobilisation stage."
"In October we won two contracts - each worth $116,000 - for two residential and commercial buildings in Madinah being built by the Al-Zairn Estate Group. Both contracts involve excavation and shoring work. One is under progress and the other is at the mobilisation stage.
"The same month we won a third contract for yet another residential and commercial complex being built in Madinah for Shaikh Abdul Qadir Shaibat Al Hamad. We have completed mobilisation work on this $78,000 contract, which covers excavation and shoring work.
"And in Makkah, we completed a contract on the Al Majd Markets for Hotels Are Us. Our contract for $145,000 covered shoring work on the project and was completed in three months, between May and August.
Last year, Kasktas Arabia executed two major piling projects in Makkah. One, worth $150,000, was for the Al Baghdadi building being built for Shaikh Ahmed Al Baghdadi and the other, worth $160,000 was for the Al Mirri building being built for Shaikh Mohammed Saleem Mirri.
