Atotal of 39 contractors in Bahrain are currently using Paschal formwork, a marked increase over the 14 reported at the same time last year.

Amir Delghandi, general manager of Paschal Concrete Forms, which is part of Paschal Werk of Germany, attributes this measurable success to the outstanding quality of the system and the fact that it speeds up construction tremendously while offering a very important benefit - environmental-friendliness. In addition, the systems offer cost savings up to 50 per cent, he says.

Delghandi elaborates: ''Paschal formwork panels can be reused up to 250 times as they are strong and durable being manufactured of 6 mm thick frames of sturdy flat steel and high-quality Finnish birch plywood with a phenolic resin coating. And even after 250 uses, only the plywood has to be replaced while the steel frame will last virtually forever.''

The company has supplied formwork for a number of projects at Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) $400 million coke calcining and sea water desalination project. Paschal formwork was used for the pile caps by Mannai Engineering, the contractor which undertook the onshore piling work on the project.

Paschal formwork - which was previously used for the ring beams of water tank projects at Hidd, Seef and Riffa - was again put to use by Ahmed Mansoor Al A'Ali (AMA) for the circular foundation, measuring 38.5 m diameter and 1.75 m in length, for the alumina storage silos at Alba's expansion project.

Paschal's formwork systems are also helping speed up work on the Arab Bank project in the Diplomatic Area. Main contractor GP Zachariades used these systems for the retaining walls and is now using them for the construction of the reinforced concrete walls, parking ramp, columns and beams.

Meanwhile, at another prestigious project in Hoora, Paschal formwork is helping contractor Chapo complete one floor of the Hedaya Towers in 12 days with just 20 sets of column formwork, one set of lift shaft and 1,500 sq m of slab formwork, enabling it to complete the 11-storey buildings in five months. Each tower has 50 columns, three lift shafts and slabs of 825 sq m area per floor.

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

Using Paschal formwork, Cybarco is now working on the columns at a private twin tower project in central Manama, after successfully completing the reinforced concrete walls of the development in the specified time.

Sacred Heart Church's Third Millennium building is in progress with Paschal formwork under AA Nass' contractorship. Another large project is under way in Juffair (being built by AA Nass and Contrack International - US-joint venture) using the formwork for the many columns, beams and reinforced concrete walls.

Al Mukharraq group of companies is using Paschal formwork for a 2-m-high reinforced concrete wall of cable duct for Bahrain Telecommunications Company's (Batelco) north Muharraq RLU project.

Having reinforced itself firmly in the Bahrain market, Paschal Concrete Forms now intends to spread its horizons within the region, especially to the other GCC countries.

Successful inroads have been made in Oman where the firm's formwork has been used on the Oman LNG project by Bahwan Engineering.