Al Kifah Batching Plant (KBP), one of the leading batching plant manufacturers of Saudi Arabia, says that it has had a busy year in business trying to meet the orders that has come its way following a surge in construction activity in the kingdom.

“From January until July end, the company has manufactured 21 batching plants and delivered them to our customers,” says Abdul Rahman Saleh Al Katheer, general manager. “In addition to this we have 24 batching plants at the fabrication stage and we are expecting a few more orders to come by before the year end. The orders won by the company so far have been valued at SR60 million ($15.99 million).
Keeping up with its efforts to remain ahead of the competition, the company has also recently launched its new mobile plant, which has several advantages.
Listing the advantages, Al Katheer says: “The new plant can be moved easily from one place to the other as it takes only 48 hours to dismantle and erect. The plants have a high productivity of 60 cu m per hour using a 1 cu m pan mixer. The plant, which is easy on maintenance owing to its construction comes with two, built-in silos of 27 tonnes each, which are capable of storing more cement for use. The raw materials are fed to the aggregate bins by ram or a feeding conveyor with a rotating chute.”
Commenting on business trends in Saudi Arabia, he says: “During the past few years, business has been excellent and it is flourishing every year. Owing to the inflationary pressure in the economy, there has been tendency of rising cost prices and the sale prices of our products have also increased consequently.
“The construction sector is booming day by day and currently it is the best market for investors in the sector. The new surge in investments and the upgrading of existing infrastructure in the kingdom has brought about a rapid growth in the readymix business sector, thereby creating a greater demand for our products.
“We have also witnessed a growth in revenue aided by our expert sales force and also the fact that we are now an ISO 9001 company. Compared to last year, where we had achieved sales of SR55 million ($14.6 million), we are looking to double the figure to SR110 million ($29.33 million) this year,” he says.
“In view of the growing market demand, we are establishing one more production unit for the manufacture of water chiller and ice making plants,” says Al Katheer. “This will help us meet the demands both from domestic and overseas customers. For this purpose we have bought new land and constructed a new building and we expect to start production by the end of the year.”
The company has also introduced measures that will help it increase its sales revenue and the quality of its products. “To help achieve ISO standards in production, we have recently purchased a list of equipment that include: a CNC press brake machine, three overhead cranes from Serva Crane, UK, and two lathe machines from the UK.
Located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Al Kifah Batching Plant claims to the be the only manufacturer of mobile, portable and static concrete batching plant and mixing plants and accessories such as complete aggregate sand washing plants, cement silos, radial and static conveyors and electric control panels in the Middle East. Besides manufacturing concrete batching plant and components, the company also refurbishes, upgrades and repairs old plant and components and also fabricates steel products.
“We have been producing good quality, ISO-certified batching plants since 1993,” says Al Katheer. “Our state-of-the-art facility, which is fitted with automatic, semi-automatic machines and equipment, executes the production processes under the supervision of the company’s management and experienced production staff factory. The facility has the production capacity of 40 to 50 concrete batching plants per year.
“We have approximately 150 highly qualified administrative and technical staff, working out of a 36,000 sq m factory, says Al Katheer.
Promoted by the Al Kifah Holding Company, KBP is headquartered at Al Mubarraz in Hofuf and has satellite offices elsewhere in the kingdom (Jeddah, Dammam, Jubail and Hasa), as well as in Dubai in the UAE. In addition, it has an office at Wolver Hampton in the UK.