Al Esra Aluminum Manufacturing and Casting Factory has been capitalising on a booming construction sector in its home city of Madinah, upgrading to the latest machinery and ensuring a full order book.

"Construction in Saudi Arabia has been busy in the last year, particularly in Madinah," says general manager Ayman Samaren. "Construction in the central area of Madinah has expanded greatly, and we are expecting a growing market for our products and services," he explains.

It is not just in Saudi Arabia that Al Esra is looking to expand, however. The company's plans for next year include moves into other Middle East markets, while incorporating enhanced technologies in the production of innovative aluminium fabrications.

Aluminium has, in the last two decades, become more widely used in the construction industry thanks to its unrivalled performance in adverse climates, for its environmental-friendliness and for its ease of form. And technical research, pioneered by Al Esra, has produced numerous innovative applications for the metal, says Akbar Ahmed, assistant general manager.

From its 12,000 sq m factory in Madinah, Al Esra manufactures, supplies and installs aluminium works including windows, doors, cast oriels (mashrabiya), cast balustrades, cast grills, cast fences, lighting posts, furniture and other ornaments. It was a pioneer in the manufacture of oriels, which are traditionally made of wood. Transforming the oriels into pure aluminium has, says the company, put an end to the many problems of maintenance, painting, treatment of wood cracks etc and the process was the focus of a recent $800,000 project by Jeddah Municipality in which the company changed all wooden oriels into aluminium in two months. Al Esra has also performed work for Medinah Municipality, the Yanbu Saline Water Conversion station (housing compound), the Presidency General of the Two Holy Mosques, ABV and many other clients. Other services performed at its modern manufacturing facility include aluminium casting, surface treatment, assembly, polyester powder coating and packaging lines operated by highly-trained technicians.

Al Esra's development programme includes adding wooden colour powder coating (Woodall Technology); establishing an automated dieshop line operating lathe machine centres (LMCs) and central machining centres; and establishing a fully-automated metal treatment and plating line (gold, chrome plating etc.).

Established in 1990, Al Esra has grown and is today a modern company with an annual turnover of $3.5 million. With experience on some major aluminium projects in western Saudi Arabia, the company is now looking to build on its expertise both locally and overseas.