ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - UAE Interact

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112UNITED ARAB EMIRATES YEARBOOK 2006Tabreed presently has district cooling operations in three countries (UAE, Qatar,Bahrain) and is planning further expansion in the GCC region. The company’smajor financial activity in 2005 was completing a Dh500 million rights issue.CEMENT AND BRICKSA new cement factory with a planned annual production capacity of 1 milliontonnes began construction in Ra’s al-Khaimah in 2005. Given the pace ofdevelopment in the country and the demand for building materials, the marketfor cement is expected to rise by 10 to 15 per cent annually to a total of around23 million tonnes per annum within the next five years. Pioneer Cement Industryis developing the new factory in the Al Ghail area.Meanwhile, the Ra’s al-Khaimah Investment Authority is promoting establishmentof a bricks factory at a cost of US$100 million (Dh368 million). The project formspart of the emirate’s ten-year development programme.CERAMICSRAK Ceramics’ latest facility in the UAE is the world’s largest single ceramicproducts plant. The company invested Dh735 million (US$200 million) to boostits combined annual capacity to 100 million square metres of ceramic tiles. It nowaccounts for 5 per cent of the total world production of ceramic tiles. It has alsoformed a new company, in which it will take a 50 per cent stake, to produce 15million pieces of ceramic tableware per year.The capacity of the main Ra’s al-Khaimah plant has been raised from 120,000square metres of ceramic tiles per day and 7000 pieces of sanitary ware to200,000 square metres of ceramic tiles and 9000 pieces of sanitary ware. Thecompany is also setting up a plant in Kakinada, in India at an investment of US$60million (Dh221 million).The company’s UAE factories are located 20 kilometres south of Ra’s al-KhaimahCity, along the highway to Dubai. The company operates from its UAE base.but it has also established an extensive international network of factories. In2005 it announced a new joint venture with the world’s largest producer of adhesivesubstances and ceramic fixing grouts, Laticrete International. The new company,Laticrete RAK Co LLC, whose factory is located in Ra’s al-Khaimah, will produce100,000 tons of adhesive material and ceramic fixing grouts. In June 2005 itopened MC-8, a new high-tech ceramics manufacturing facility which is RAKCeramics’ ninth unit in the emirate. It will have a production capacity in excessof 35,000 square metres of high quality granite ceramic tiles per day.TEXTILES AND CLOTHINGAt its peak, the UAE had 200 factories and exported almost Dh1 billion worth ofgarments. Overall 246 companies were involved in this sector in 2004, employing
114UNITED ARAB EMIRATES YEARBOOK 200632,481 employees or 14 per cent of the workforce. According to industry sources,more than 75 per cent of the garment-manufacturing establishments have nowclosed. Although labour-intensive garment manufacturing per se is clearly in astate of rapid decline in the UAE, the country is developing related aspects ofthe business, becoming a prime choice for regional offices of larger garmentexporting firms, inventory holding warehouses as well as trans-shipments.Apart from the manufacturers, there are still four weaving and spinning factories,and about 30 factories engaged in the production of textile furniture accessories,bed sheets, pillows etc., and more than 100 textile ancillary establishments. Thisexperience, expertise and specialisation in the industry is being harnessed to movehigher up in the garment supply chain.PHARMACEUTICALSThe UAE’s pharmaceutical industry is worth over Dh1 billion per year. At presentthe industry is heavily dependent on imports to meet customer demand, but agrowing manufacturing sector is also gaining strength. Only about 7 per cent ofimported pharmaceuticals are re-exported. The national market for pharmaceuticalshas been steadily increasing, partly in line with growing population and also relatedto improving standards of living. Regional demand also shows an upward trend.Pharmaceutical imports account for about 1 per cent of the UAE’s total import bill.Almost 90 per cent of the imported pharmaceuticals are in the form of medications,with the remainder being medical materials such as adhesives, dressings, vaccinesetc. The largest category of imported medicines fall in the general category (almost75 per cent), after which antibiotics form the single largest clearly definablecategory. Exports are largely within the MENA region, with Yemen being thelargest buyer, followed by Sudan, Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain and Iran. The top tenbuying countries account for almost 95 per cent of the exports.A major pharmaceutical company headquartered in the UAE is Ra’s al-Khaimah’sJulphar, whose sales exceed Dh500 million across 40 countries and four continents.The Julphar group owns six pharmaceutical plants, four in the Emirates, onein Ecuador and one in Germany. It also controls a Gulf-wide infrastructure ofdistribution and warehousing, pharmacy management, a printing and packaginghouse, a plastic dosing cup and aluminium pilfer-proof cap manufacturing unit,an environment-controlled transportation fleet and other service support units.ALUMINIUMAbu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) recently acquired a 40 per centstake in a new 325-kilotonne aluminium smelter to be built on the Batinah coastof Oman, at Sohar. It is in partnership in the project with Oman Oil Companyand the multinational aluminium company, Alcan. The project is expected tocommence production in 2008.
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