Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (Balexco) is running at high capacity to meet local and international demand of extrusions designed for various industrial and architectural applications.

The aluminium extrusion pioneer has a production capacity of 33,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), coming a long way from its initial humble 6,000 capacity. Today, it has four presses and state-of-the-art fully automated anodising and powder coating plants. These in-house surface treatment plants are in compliance with Qualicoat for powder coating and Qualando for anodising plant.

To further reinforce its market position, the company is now considering installing a vertical powder coating line, which will offer key advantages including higher productivity, lower operating costs and optimum design for a long series of similar profiles, says a company spokesman.

“Balexco’s key strength lies in optimum utilisation of its resources. We have carried out expansion with the addition of one more press, taking the total number to four. In addition, the revamping and overhauling of the remaining three presses was carried out, which further enhanced and streamlined the operation and minimised maintenance requirements,” he adds.

In addition, the plant is equipped with four modern wrapping machines as part of a strategic investment and to enhance the supply of products.

In line with its efforts to further enhance its capabilities, the company is in the process of introducing innovative technology with the installation of an infrared die heating oven to enable rapid and reliable heating of dies for extrusion, says the spokesman.

Since its inception in 1977, Balexco has focused on excellence in extrusion and today nearly 75 per cent of its products are consumed within the GCC, where there is an ever-growing demand for its extruded aluminium profiles.

Balexco offers specialised shapes and dimensions that are tailor-made, customised and extruded as per the client and industrial applications. The advantages of aluminium extrusions, the spokesman says, are that they are lightweight, strong, non-corrosive and have high thermal conductivity.

“The ease of fabrication gives rise to limitless forms and these can be used to make kitchen cabinets, air-conditioner grilles, shopfronts, scaffolding profiles, and ladders. They can also be used in the marine industry, transportation, etc,” he says.

He says the company has ready dies to meet various industry requirements and keeps a steady stock of fast-moving items to ensure speedy and just-in-time delivery.

“In fact, Balexco has more than 6,000 dies of various applications – which is the backbone of our strength. Complex shapes can be extruded without having to rely on mechanical joining. These extruded profiles are typically stronger than sections requiring a mechanical joint,” the spokesman continues.

For 2016, Balexco intends to focus on promoting its thermal break system profiles, lift -and-slide system in addition to its architectural/industrial profiles.

Architectural systems profiles by Balexco are well accepted by customers in Bahrain and the other GCC markets. The company’s system profiles are easy to fabricate and assemble which facilitates the fabricators’ work, enabling them to complete their projects on time and meet tight deadlines.

The company enjoys easy access to the local smelter Alba (Aluminium Bahrain), which helps expedite the production of various alloys to meet customer requirements.

Balexco has aimed at surpassing clients’ expectations thus ensuring customer satisfaction. The ISO 9001:2008 certified company sees maintaining quality and customer satisfaction as an ongoing process of improvement.

The spokesman points out that experienced and trained staff is the key to its success. An example of ongoing training was a workshop on anodising surface treatment that was conducted by Metachem of Germany at Balexco’s premises to train the staff and apprise them of the latest technology for anodising.

Balexco is specified in Ministry of Housing and many public-private partnerships (PPP) projects. It also participates regularly in trade fairs to maintain close ties with its customers. The company recently took part in Gulf Industry Fair 2015 and Arabal 2014.

Commenting on business ahead, the spokesman cites the reduced oil prices in the international market as a cause of concern in the GCC region.

“This has become a challenge for the next year. However, backed by a strong network of customers, access to end users, traders and stockists, Balexco strongly believes that it can overcome the challengers posed under the present and future circumstances.

“Our consistent endeavour is to ensure that Balexco remains a one-stop destination for aluminium extruded products,” he concludes.