Napco acquires powder coating line

NATIONAL Aluminium Products Company (Napco), one of the leading extruders of aluminium profiles in the GCC, has announced the acquisition of a new vertical powder coating line to meet the growing demand for high production aluminium-based powder coating systems in the region.

To date, Napco is the only aluminium extruder in Oman and one of the three companies in the entire GCC capable of addressing the requirement for powder-coated extrusions with profile lengths of up to 8 m, the company said.

The move is in line with the expansion plan of Napco, which already has a horizontal powder coating line. The acquisition of the new powder coating system will enable the company to better respond to higher demand for overall coating services and meet specific orders for higher length profiles. Purchased from a leading European supplier, the hi-tech vertical powder coating line provides high production capacity with the ability to economically powder-coat extrusions.

Konecranes launches new chain hoist

KONECRANES, a leading provider of lifting equipment and services for a wide range of industries, has launched its new CLX chain hoist crane in the region.

Available in safe working loads from 500 kg up to 5,000 kg, the new CLX crane performs as a strong link in any process chain, said Konecranes.

Suitable for many different industries such as general manufacturing or maintenance applications, it has the flexibility to be configured into a diverse range of industrial environments, to fulfil customers’ lifting needs – from the basic to the most demanding, it stated.

The key features of the CLX chain hoist crane include reliability and performance.

Durable components, compact headroom, and a high level of operating safety results in excellent performance, with 300 starts per hour. Standard temperature monitoring prevents the motor from overheating, while additional standard ventilation leads to improved hoist performance, said the company. In lifting operations, the brake of the chain hoist is an essential part of the product safety.

French firm wins Oman contract

SUEZ Environnement, a French expert group in water and waste-management services, has won a contract worth €32 million ($37 million) to design, build and operate the municipal landfill facility in Amerat, Oman.

The five-year contract has been awarded to Suez Environnement’s Oman subsidiary Sita Al Basheer. As per the deal, Sita Al Basheer will build the new cell of the landfill facility for Amerat’s non-hazardous solid municipal waste generated by capital Muscat.

The new facility will include a biogas recovery system and a reverse osmosis plant for treating leachates.

Az Zour plant Phase One under way

UP to 65 per cent of work in the First Phase of Az Zour Power Plant, a gas-fired combined cycle power and water plant located at Az Zour, Kuwait, has been completed.

The plant, approximately 100 km south of capital Kuwait City, will start generating electricity in June, said Shamal Az Zour Al Oula Company, which is responsible for building, execution, operation, management and maintenance of the first phase of the power plant.

The plant is being built as part of Az Zour North Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP).

The integrated power and desalination plant is scheduled to be completed and commissioned by the fourth quarter of 2016. The power plant is of 1,500 MW and the associated water desalination plant has a capacity of 107 million gallons per day.

Galfar wins hospital contract

GALFAR Engineering and Contracting Company has been awarded a major contract worth RO213.96 million ($58 million) for the construction of Royal Oman Police’s (ROP) new general hospital at Airport Heights, the company said.

The completion period of the contract is 1,095 days.

Hyflux secures Oman water project

A CONSORTIUM led by Singapore-based Hyflux has been awarded a $250-million contract to design, build, own and operate an independent water project (IWP) at Qurayyat in Oman.

Qurayyat IWP, awarded by the government-owned Oman Power and Water Procurement (OPWP), involves a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant with a designed capacity of 200,000 cu m per day.

A leading provider of integrated water management and environmental solutions, Hyflux will be responsible for turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as operations and maintenance of the plant. The project is scheduled to begin commercial operation by May 2017.

Pipeline contracts to be awarded

THE first construction contracts for a new crude oil pipeline between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are expected to be awarded by the second quarter of this year, a senior Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) official said.

Abdul Jabbar Abdul Karim said the contracts involve the onshore engineering, procurement and construction package of the AB pipeline project.

A new 30-inch-diameter, 115-km-long pipeline running onshore for 74 km, with the remaining 42 km being sub-sea, is planned to be built to replace the current ageing pipeline.

With the new pipeline coming on stream, the transport capacity from Aramco’s Abqaiq plant to Bahrain will be raised to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 230,000 bpd currently.