ALUBOND USA, a product of the multinational conglomerate Mulk Holdings, continues to expand and add prestigious projects to its Dubai portfolio including some of the tallest and the largest towers, and shopping malls. The building materials brand has established itself as the world’s leading aluminium composite panel (ACP) product with a presence in 80 countries and a worldwide installed production capacity of over 20 million sq m per annum.

Brand Alubond USA has seen tremendous growth in the exterior facades segment since Mulk Holdings acquired exclusive manufacturing and distribution rights to the ACPs in 2004.

“Alubond USA is a key product used in the construction industry and a lot of the prestigious projects in Dubai have benefited from the product. We are proud of the fact that these panels have become a prominent aspect of the Dubai cityscape,” says a company spokesman.

Brand Alubond USA of American Building Technologies Incorporation (ABTI) located in Rockford, Illinois, US, is fully owned by Mulk Holdings. It is marketed in the UAE by Eurocon Building Industries, a subsidiary of Mulk Holdings.

Alubond USA has, over the years, emerged as the world’s largest metal composite brand with production bases in Europe, Middle East, and India. The new production bases in Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia have increased the company’s annual installed production capacity of metal composite panels to more than 20 million sq m and coil coating capacity to over 20,000 tonnes.

These panels are currently being used in several projects in Dubai, boosting the already impressive list of projects that have benefited from the advantages of Alubond USA. Among such projects is The Address The BLVD, where around 50,000 sq m of these fire-rated panels are being installed. Located in the vicinity of Dubai Mall, the five-star hotel complex comprising a 200-room hotel and 542 serviced residences will be the sixth member of The Address Hotels and Resorts’ portfolio.

The hotel tower, which soar 63 storeys (340 m) high, will on completion to be the second tallest building in Downtown Dubai, next to Burj Khalifa. The Address The BLVD will provide direct access to The Dubai Mall, Emaar Square and Burj Khalifa metro station through a new air-conditioned bridge link.

Other ongoing projects where the ACP brand is being installed include Rashid Hospital, Dream Tower and Al Bateen Tower.

For the Rashid Hospital project, located on Oud Metha Road adjacent to Dubai Creek, some 8,000 sq m of Alubond USA fire-rated B1 panels are being supplied. The 454-bed general medical/surgical hospital, which was built in 1973, is the city’s second oldest hospital and is currently being renovated.

For the Dh1.7-billion ($462.9 million) Dream tower project, Alubond USA has supplied about 24,000 sq m of fire-rated panels. The 48-storey residential tower is being built over a 6,278 sq m of plot in the Dubai Marina district.

Also in the Dubai Marina area, work is in progress on the Al Bateen Residence and Hotel Tower, where some 13,000 sq m of Alubond panels are being installed. The 56-floor tower is expected to be completed this year.

Alubond USA counts among its successfully completed projects a large number of Dubai landmarks, such as the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road, the tallest hotel in the emirate. A total of 6,000 sq m of fire-rated panels have been installed at the stunning 72-storey, 355-m twin-tower skyscraper complex. Other key projects include the Burj Residence towers in the Burj Khalifa downtown area (40,000 sq m of fire-rated ACPs); the extension to Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping mall (1,400 sq m of cladding band); The Dome, a 41-floor tower in the Jumeirah Lake Towers (25,000 sq m of Alubond panels); Dubai Silicon Oasis (15,000 sq m of ACPs); and Oasis Mall, where metallic silver Alubond USA fire-rated panels were used.

Mulk Holdings, which owns and manages a group of 14 companies and enjoys an annual turnover of Dh2.8 billion ($762 million), has diversified business interests spanning primarily three sectors — construction materials, renewable energy and healthcare. This includes manufacture of ACPs and solar panels, as well as development of solar power plants and a wide network of high-end diagnostic centres with telemedicine capability.

The company’s business interests in terms of exterior facades are covered by the brands of Alubond USA, Coil Cote Aluminium coil coatings and Mulk RE solar technology systems, healthcare and hospitality.

Mulk Holdings’ first healthcare investment venture is the technologically-driven Global Hawk Diagnostic (GHID) centres with telemedicine capability. This unique concept offers the possibility of connecting multiple centres to a central hub of specialist doctors and allows patients in any part of the world to get quality healthcare from these doctors. GHID opened its first centre in Dubai in January 2012 with plans to open 10 such centres in the GCC and India in the next three years.

The company is also committed to CSR (corporate social responsibility) with its chairman Shaji Ul Mulk taking a personal interest in this regard and associate companies like Eurocon Building Industries being regular donors to several charity programmes.