German products, machinery and expertise are being used to speed up and ease work on a diverse range of projects in the Middle East. A look at some of the services offered to the region.

Paschal Concrete Forms, which is part of Paschal Werk of Germany, continues to make further inroads into the market with a total of 42 contractors in Bahrain currently using its environmental-friendly Paschal formwork.

The firm's success is not limited to Bahrain but extends to the rest of the Gulf. Paschal has recently introduced its system in Qatar for a 18-villa project being implemented by Al-Madar Construction of Doha. It has already supplied to projects in the UAE and to Oman where the formwork has been used on the Oman LNG project and the American School at Muscat.

In Bahrain, the company continues to supply formwork to projects at Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) $400 million coke calcining and seawater desalination project.

Elaborating on one of the latest projects at the facility, Amir Delghandi, general manager of Paschal Concrete Forms, says: "Gulermak Construction (Turkey) has completed 10 beams of 60 by 175 cm which are to be lifted by the slip formwork to the top of calcining coke silo. There are four silos to be built - the beam for the second silo is in progress.

''Here, Gulermak is using modular formwork system for the beam shuttering and Paschal deck system for supporting the beams. Paschal formwork was used for the pile caps by Mannai Engineering, the contractor which undertook the onshore piling work on the project."

Ahmed Mansoor Al A'Ali (AMA) has decided to use Paschal formwork for the construction of the West Riffa pumping station project, he adds. AMA had previously used the same formwork for the circular foundation of the alumina storage silos at Alba and for the ring beams of water tank projects at Hidd, Seef and Riffa.

Turning to other projects, Delghandi says: "After its successful experience at the private twin tower project in central Manama, Cybarco intends to use Paschal's formwork system in for its latest project, the Citibank regional headquarters at Seef.

"To speed up work on the Orientation Programme building project at University of Bahrain, Olympic Group has used Paschal system for columns.

"Al-Ghana Contracting, which has 11 years of experience with Paschal systems, is using the formwork for its residential projects in Mahoos and Juffair and a shopping mall in Isa Town.

"AA Nass is continuing work on the Euro Motors showroom after completing the stripfooting and ground beam with Paschal formwork system.

"Paschal's formwork systems are also helping speed up work on the Arab Bank project in the Diplomatic Area.

"For the Dana Mall which is under construction at Sanabis, contractor Qasantina Contracting completed a total of 400 footings, 400 pedestals, hundreds of running metres of ground beam and column encasing and is continuing with the reinforced concrete wall using Paschal formwork to achieve record speed, says Delghandi.

Meanwhile, Chapo is using Paschal formwork to complete the 11-storey Hedaya Twin Tower building at Hoora.

Commenting on the reasons for the success of the system, Delghandi says: "Paschal formwork systems are of outstanding quality and are environmental-friendly. While speeding up the construction process, the systems offer cost savings up to 50 per cent. Paschal formwork panels can be reused up to 250 times as they are strong and durable - and even after 250 uses, only the plywood has to be replaced while the steel frame will last virtually forever."