Mammut Building Systems, the largest manufacturer of pre-engineered steel buildings (PEBs) in the UAE, will unveil its ambitious plans for the Saudi market at SaudiBuild 2003.

Mammut general manager Muayyad Khudairi says that the Saudi market for PEBs is vast and is estimated to be 2.5 times the size of the UAE market.  'The Saudi market has long been sheltered from UAE-based companies. This has resulted in higher prices for pre-engineered steel buildings in Saudi Arabia. Mammut has done very well in the highly-competitive UAE market and intends to capture the Saudi market through lower prices, faster delivery and better service,'' he says. ''We are very confident that both contractors and owners/developers will welcome us in the Saudi market.''

As a part of its expansion, Mammut has appointed the former area sales manager for Zamil Steel, Ashraf Kassab, as its regional sales manager for Saudi Arabia.
Kassab has 10 years of experience in  selling PEBs. His experience includes five years with Kirby Building Systems-Kuwait of which four years were in the position of area sales manager for the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and one year as area sales manager for Northern Vietnam. Following that he spent five years with Zamil Steel, where for four years he was based in Dhaka as area sales manager for Bangladesh and for one year in Cairo as regional sales manager for Egypt.

Khudairi comments: 'Kassab was one of the most successful area sales managers at Zamil Steel. He will bring Mammut a wealth of technical knowledge and sales experience. We aim to capture and sustain a 25 per cent market share of the Saudi market before the end of 2004. We have a great competitive edge over all the three Saudi-based PEB manufacturers. We have recruited some of their most seasoned executives and engineers which coupled with our superior engineering software and more modern manufacturing equipment will drive us to the forefront of the Saudi market very quickly.'

Khudairi feels that the Saudisation of labour at all levels in Saudi Arabia will be a competitive disadvantage in the short to medium term to Saudi-based PEB manufacturers (which are labour intensive) as Saudi employees tend to be much more highly paid than their foreign counterparts resulting in a higher cost per unit of production.

Since the completion of its state-of-the-art factory in Sharjah's Hamriyah's Free Zone in January 2002, Mammut says it has expand its sales of pre-engineered tenfold. Its sales during the first eight months of 2003 have averaged 3,000 tonnes per month which is equivalent to 125,000 sq m of covered roof area per month.

During the past 18 months Mammut says it has captured a substantial market share of PEBs in the market, which it claims to be 65 per cent in the UAE, 40 per cent in Oman and 30 per cent in Qatar. Last year Mammut identified these three countries as its principal markets and established a plan to capture 60 per cent of the PEB markets share in each of them before the end of 2003.

Mammut has recently installed the GCC's highest capacity machine for the production of polyurethane (PU)-injected sandwich panels. The machine will be capable of producing 120,000 sq m of PU panels per month, a figure that exceeds the combined monthly production capacity of PU-injected panels of all other GCC-based PEB manufacturers.
Adds Khudairi: 'We have been producing PU panels in the UAE for only three months. Soon contractors throughout the Middle East will discover our low prices, high quality and fast delivery of PU sandwich panels. We stock huge quantities of mill finish and pre-painted AluZinc coated steel coils and aluminium coils in four popular colours (off-white, Emirates green, Army beige and Bristol blue). Because PU-injected sandwich panels constitute 60 per cent of the cost of a pre-engineered steel building and because of our huge capacity and fast delivery, our ability to win projects with PU-injected panels will rise considerately with time.'

Mammut aims to increase sales of PEBs to 6,000 tonnes  per month before the end of 2005 and has acquired more machinery to increase the production of built-up plate I-sections which is the core component of pre-engineered steel buildings and the one that ultimately determines the monthly production capacity of a pre-engineered steel buildings manufacturer.

Continues Khudairi: 'Between now and the end of 2003 we will add sales presence in Muscat (Oman), Manama (Bahrain) and Kuwait City (Kuwait) to our existing network of fully staffed sales offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi (UAE), Doha (Qatar), Dammam (Saudi), Khartoum (Sudan), Dhaka and Chittagong (Bangladesh), Lahore and Karachi (Pakistan) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). By January 2004 we will be entering orders at the rate of 4,000 tonnes per month and would have become the second largest manufacturer of PEBs in the GCC. Our aim is to be the biggest and God willing this will be achieved before the end of 2005.'

At SaudiBuild 2003 Mammut will be represented by Kassab who will be seeking one sponsor for Mammut in each of the three geographical economic areas of Saudi Arabia namely the Eastern Province, the Central Province and the Western Province. Mammut is looking for a long established, well-managed financially-strong trading company in each region to appoint as its sponsor and will work without bias with all contractors.
'We invite all consultants, contractors, developers and owners to send their inquiries for pre-engineered steel buildings and sandwich panels to sales@mammut.ae  and promise an immediate response with a detailed quotation offer and proposal drawings,' Khudari adds.