Under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, UAE Prime Minister and Vice-President, and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court and Chairman of the Higher Corporation of Specialized Economic Zones (ZonesCorp), and Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, broke ground for Ducab’s new High Voltage Factory, in a ceremony held today (November 24th ) at the Ducab head office and factory in Jebel Ali.
The ceremony was in honour of Ducab’s 30th anniversary of operations in the UAE and was attended by H.E. Saeed Al Tayer, Managing Director & CEO of DEWA, and H.E. Eng. Ahmed Al Mureikhi, Representative from ADWEA. Ducab managers, business partners and key media representatives were also present at the event. The new factory will be Ducab’s sixth plant, catering to high-voltage and extra high-voltage projects already planned by ADWEA and DEWA as well as projects around the region.
Along with the ground breaking of the new factory, the company also officially launched the Ducab Special Cable Unit (SCU). This new unit significantly expands Ducab’s capacity for specialised cables suitable for oil and gas projects in the region.
“Ducab is a perfect example of what joint initiatives between Dubai and Abu Dhabi can achieve,” said Mr. Ahmed Al Shaikh, Chairman of Ducab. With the blessed leadership of our rulers and the strong support from ADWEA and DEWA, we are expanding our operations to meet customers’ demands across the region
The AED 500 million Ducab-HV factory is already underway and commercial operations will commence in late 2010. It will manufacture cable systems in the voltage range 66kV (66,000 Volts) to 400kV (400,000 Volts) covering the highest voltage currently used in the GCC. With a total built up area of 22,000m2 on a site plot of 50,000m2 at the Ducab Jebel Ali site, the factory will be the first dedicated high voltage facility in the region and will have a manufacturing capability of 30,000 Tonnes per year of cable in the range 66kV to 400kV and conductor sizes from 300sqmm to 2500sqmm.
“As our regional economies continue to grow, the need for electricity and power infrastructure grows too,” added Al Shaikh. “The Ducab HV factory is designed to meet these needs supporting ADWEA, DEWA and other regional utilities with the highest quality High Voltage and Extra High Voltage cables.”
Ducab has come a long way in the past 30 years, originally starting from just a single factory in Jebel Ali. Today, the company operates five factories across the UAE with over 900 employees. With a manufacturing capacity of 110,000 tonnes annually, Ducab’s market share is about 50% locally, with substantial exports to other GCC countries
The late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, former Ruler of Dubai and grandfather of Sheikh Majid, opened Ducab 30 years ago in partnership with the UK company BICC Cables. As the years passed, Ducab began expanding its product line and also entered into the cable accessories and components market. By the 1990s, Ducab was achieving sales of over AED 200m (USD $54.2m) and by 2008 these had grown to AED 3.2 billion. Ducab was also the first Gulf manufacturing company to obtain ISO 9001:1994 and ISO 14001 Environment Management Standard certifications.
Last year, Ducab commissioned a major expansion of their Abu Dhabi facilities with the addition of a new factory, the UAE’s first copper rod mill. The company’s current product line includes the full range of LV and MV power cables; Fire Performance Instrumentation and Control Cables—which include single and multi-core Fire Resistant cables; Low Smoke and Fume Cables; Instrumentation and Pilot cables; and Flexible wires.
Ducab’s tailor-made, advanced-cable solutions have laid the foundation for major projects ranging from world-renowned hotels to hospitals to government utilities. Some of the landmark projects powered by Ducab include the Burj Dubai, Palm Jumeriah, Dubai Metro, Gasco Ruwais, Delhi Metro, Lulu Island Bahrain, and Ras Laffan Qatar, among others.
