meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

Ducab undaunted by global market headwinds

3 October 2024

 

Register for MEED's 14-day trial access 

The adoption of a business expansion strategy about three years ago has taken Ducab Group to new markets and opened up new industrial sectors. More importantly, the strategy has positioned the company to better withstand global economic challenges, says group CEO Mohammad Almutawa. 

Ducab Group, which is equally- owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) and Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, registered a year-on-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of 31%, as of the end of the first half of this year. 

“The Ducab strategy has three pillars – optimisation of existing assets and businesses, diversifying our revenue streams and enhancing our organisation,” Almutawa said. 

“We still expect a record year for Ducab, whether it is from a capacity and production point of view, or from a market penetration and market expansion perspective, or from profitability,” he told MEED. 

Ducab Group recently announced that its subsidiary, Ducab Metals Business, will double its output of aluminium products from 55,000 tonnes a year (t/y) to 110,000 t/y.

Ducab Metals Business will build the new aluminium products facility in Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi (Kezad), where it already owns a 50,000 square-metre facility, the company said at a conference in Abu Dhabi on 5 September. In May, the firm signed a 50-year land lease agreement with Kezad to acquire a 51,015 sq m plot, on which it will build the new plant.

Meeting demand 

The investment in increasing production capacity will help meet rising demand for aluminium products at home and overseas, the company’s leadership said at the event titled ‘Ducab Metals Business Expansion Forum: Advancing capacity, driving innovation’, held in partnership with MEED. 

“This [production capacity] expansion will allow us to enter the AED7bn [$1.9bn] revenue club. We are moving from AED6.6bn, and adding another AED600m,” revealed Mohamed Al-Ahmedi, CEO of Ducab Metals Business. 

“We are in the hot metals line in Kezad. We are getting aluminium as feedstock from [Emirates Global Aluminium] EGA, producing it, and using Khalifa Port to export the products,” he said to MEED. 

“The new facility is expected to be commissioned by the end of the year, and we will start producing next year. The facility is in an advanced stage of construction,” Al-Ahmedi further said. 

Market challenges 

As a supplier of aluminium and copper products, as well as electric cables of various specifications to multiple industries around the world, Ducab Group is not immune to challenges prevalent in the global economic landscape.  

“The geopolitical situation has impacted us [financially],” Almutawa said. There are “difficulties arising from supply chain disruptions, competition, and shifting of capacities around the world. I will attribute this more to severe competition than economic slowdown. I think the sector [metal products] is a challenging one. There is overcapacity”, he commented.

“There is a sort of a shift of appetite from globalisation to regionalisation. Countries putting up trade barriers and tariffs. This is definitely one of the risks that we try to look at consciously,” Al-Ahmedi said.

Almutawa added: “It’s a change in the behaviour of the market. It is a challenge. Overall, the world is becoming quite small [commercially conservative].”

“While, previously, people were looking at expansions through acquisitions to increase capacities, increase efficiencies and manufacturing abilities, there is an added element of market access now, which forces you, some time, to move your investment offshore in order to secure the growth,” Almutawa further explained. 

In April this year, Ducab Metals Business completed the acquisition of GIC Magnet, a supplier of paper-insulated aluminium strips, among other products. GIC Magnet “is a UAE manufacturing entity with ties back to India. We acquired this company earlier this year and integrated it into Ducab as part of the expansion”, Al-Ahmedi stated. 

“We expect around $40m of additional revenues through this acquisition. To us, this acquisition is one of the gateways to enter into a new business,” he remarked. 

Almutawa affirmed he is eyeing targets for acquisitions as a way to grow the business. “We are looking at more acquisitions. We are looking for both organic and inorganic growth,” the group CEO revealed. 

Business growth 

Ducab Group’s portfolio mainly comprises two subsidiary companies – Ducab Metals Business and Ducab Cables Business. 

“DCB continues to focus on growing [its presence/share] in the oil and gas market and increasing its contribution. We are not supplying to the UAE and GCC only. We supply to oil and gas customers in Australia, the UK, Europe, Asia, Far East and India,” Almutawa said. 

Ducab Group has been a major supplier of equipment to the oil and gas industry since inception, and has been primarily catering to projects of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Group), among other regional and global customers. 

Almutawa revealed that Ducab has won orders to supply products to Adnoc’s $17bn Hail and Ghasha sour gas megaproject and Adnoc Group subsidiary, Al-Dhafra Petroleum’s Haliba field development projects. 

“We are doing extremely well [with oil and gas customers]. We are based in an oil-predominant economy in the UAE. We have always contributed to it by providing the capabilities and diversity, and by introducing technical know-how, and by expanding our contribution to that sector,” Almutawa said. 

On the question of expanding Ducab Group’s copper segment, Almutawa said: “We are looking at further optimising our copper lines to squeeze more out of it. There are no plans for a straightforward capacity expansion.  

“In the energy sector, there is a huge transition from copper to aluminium. This does not mean that copper is going to reduce. But the usage of aluminium has increased considerably. Hence the expansion in the aluminium business. 

“Going forward, 2025 is going to continue to be a difficult year. But I think Ducab is in a much better shape to face that,”
Almutawa said. 

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12597510/main.jpg
Indrajit Sen

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Gulf LNG sector enters a new prolific phase

    24 October 2025

     

    Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been produced in the GCC since the 1970s. However, it is only since the start of this decade that regional producers have begun committing tens of billions of dollars to significantly ramp up output, driven by soaring global demand for the super-chilled fuel.

    The GCC is projected to add at least 80 million tonnes a year (t/y) of LNG capacity by 2030, placing it firmly among the world’s top three producing regions. 

    Qatar leads the Gulf’s push for LNG dominance as the region’s largest – and one of its earliest – LNG producers.

    State enterprise QatarEnergy has been producing LNG from the giant North Field offshore gas reserve in the Gulf waters, which it shares with Iran, since the 1980s. QatarEnergy currently produces 77.5 million t/y of LNG from 15 processing trains, all located in a sprawling complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City.

    Top spot

    QatarEnergy is on course to nearly double its LNG production to 142 million t/y by the end of the decade through its $40bn North Field LNG expansion programme.

    The energy giant is understood to have spent nearly $30bn on the first two phases of its North Field expansion – North Field East and North Field South – which will raise LNG production capacity from 77.5 million t/y to 126 million t/y by 2028. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on both projects are progressing.

    QatarEnergy awarded the main EPC contracts for the North Field East project in 2021. The project aims to boost LNG output to 110 million t/y by 2025. The $13bn EPC package – covering the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of four LNG trains, each with a capacity of 8 million t/y – was awarded in February 2021 to a consortium of Japan’s Chiyoda Corporation and France’s Technip Energies.

    In May 2023, QatarEnergy awarded the $10bn main EPC contract for the North Field South project to a consortium of Technip Energies and Lebanon-based Consolidated Contractors Company. 

    The contract includes two large LNG trains, each with a capacity of 7.8 million t/y.

    Once fully operational, the first two phases of the North Field expansion will add 48 million t/y of supply to the global LNG market.

    In February 2024, QatarEnergy announced the third phase of its North Field expansion – North Field West. The project will add 16 million t/y of LNG capacity through two processing trains of 8 million t/y each, following the model of earlier phases. It will source feedstock from the western zone of the offshore North Field reserve.

    Progress on the North Field West project has, however, been slow, and it has remained in the pre-front-end engineering and design (pre-feed) phase since its announcement.

    QatarEnergy is reportedly exploring options to fast-track it to the EPC stage.

    The first two phases of the North Field expansion will add 48 million t/y to the global LNG market

    Oman progress

    Oman has recently made significant progress in the global race to expand LNG production and exports. The Omani government made headlines in July last year, when it announced that majority state-owned Oman LNG would build a fourth train at its Qalhat LNG production complex in Sur.

    The new LNG train will have an output capacity of 3.8 million t/y, increasing Oman LNG’s total production capacity to 15.2 million t/y when it is commissioned in 2029.

    Oman LNG recently made key progress on its project to add a fourth processing train at the Sur LNG complex. The majority state-owned company has shortlisted a consortium of Chiyoda and South Korea’s Samsung C&T, Japanese contractor JGC Corporation and another consortium of Italian contractor Saipem and South Korea-based Daewoo Engineering & Construction to participate in the main tender for EPC works.

    Technical and commercial bids are due in February and March 2026, respectively.

    The EPC tender process began less than a year after Oman LNG awarded the feed contract to US-based consultancy KBR.

    Separately, France’s TotalEnergies is studying a potential expansion of its Marsa LNG bunkering and export terminal in Oman. The move is significant considering that the first phase of the project is currently under construction in the sultanate’s northern industrial city of Sohar, and will have an output capacity of 1 million t/y.

    TotalEnergies purportedly began an initial study on a potential second phase of the Marsa LNG facility earlier this year. The French energy major may consider doubling the output capacity of the LNG complex, although the plan is yet to be confirmed, according to sources.

    Earlier in the year, TotalEnergies appointed Technip Energies – already the main EPC contractor on the under- construction Marsa LNG terminal – as a consultant to perform concept and feasibility studies on the proposed second expansion phase.

    With Oman LNG advancing its fourth train and TotalEnergies mulling a potential doubling of LNG production in Oman, the sultanate is positioning itself as a key global LNG player by 2030.

    UAE plans

    Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has historically been one of the GCC’s smaller LNG producers. Its subsidiary, Adnoc Gas, operates three large gas processing trains on Das Island. 

    The Das Island terminal has a liquefaction and export capacity of about 6 million t/y. The first two trains, commissioned in the 1970s, provide a combined 2.9 million t/y, while the third, added in the mid-1990s, contributes 3.2 million t/y.

    Adnoc Gas will significantly expand its LNG capacity with a new greenfield terminal in Ruwais, set to come online in 2028.  The terminal will add 9.6 million t/y of LNG capacity via two 4.8 million t/y trains.

    Adnoc awarded the $5.5bn EPC contract in June 2024 to a consortium of Technip Energies, JGC Corporation, and NMDC Energy, coinciding with its final investment decision.

    Along with the main processing trains, the Ruwais LNG complex will also feature process units, storage tanks and an export jetty for loading cargoes and LNG bunkering, as well as utilities, flare handling systems and associated buildings. The facility will ship LNG mainly to key Asian markets, such as Pakistan, India, China, South Korea and Japan. 

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/14933998/main.gif
    Indrajit Sen
  • NHC signs Al-Fursan project deal with South Korean firm

    24 October 2025

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction to build a residential project in NHC’s Al‑Fursan suburb of Riyadh.

    The MoU was signed in Seoul earlier this week by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, Majed Al‑Hogail, and NHC’s CEO, Mohammed Al‑Buty.

    In an official statement published by the Saudi Press Agency, NHC said: “The MoU extends the growing Saudi-Korean partnerships, strengthened by the signing of another MoU in November 2024 to develop the Balady Platform and implement digital twins and smart city applications, contributing to urban planning development and improved quality of life.”

    This is the second major project agreement NHC has signed for residential development within the Al‑Fursan district.

    In March last year, NHC and Egyptian real estate developer Talaat Moustafa Group signed an agreement to develop more than 27,000 residential units at NHC’s Banan City project in the Al‑Fursan suburb.

    The project will cover an area of 10 million square metres and include hospitals, schools, retail, sports facilities and other public amenities.

    In 2023, NHC and Saudi Arabia’s Housing Ministry signed investment agreements totalling more than SR24bn ($6.4bn) to launch the Al-Fursan residential project.

    Al‑Fursan is described as the largest scheme in terms of area and number of housing units that NHC is implementing in partnership with other real estate developers. 

    For the district’s first phase, 18 real estate development agreements were signed with companies including Retal Urban Development Company and Sumou Real Estate Company.

    NHC also signed four consultancy contracts to manage projects and supervise implementation of phase one and the deployment of comprehensive infrastructure works.

    Other deals involved the development of facilities, including commercial and recreational areas, hospitals, health and sports centres, mosques and schools.

    MEED reported in 2020 that Riyadh planned to oversee the development of more than 1 million homes by 2025 to meet growing demand in the kingdom.

    By 2030, the Saudi capital aims to more than double its population, from 7-8 million to 15-20 million, and become one of the 10 wealthiest cities in the world.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/14934006/main.jpg
    Yasir Iqbal
  • October 2025: Data drives regional projects

    24 October 2025

    Click here to download the PDF

    Includes: Commodity tracker | Construction risk | Brent Spot Price | Construction output

    MEED’s November 2025 report on the UAE includes:

    > COMMENT: Investment shapes UAE growth story
    > GOVERNMENT: Public spending ties the UAE closer together
    > ECONOMY: UAE growth expansion beats expectations
    > BANKING: Stability is the watchword for UAE lenders
    > OIL & GAS: Adnoc strives to build long-term upstream potential
    > PETROCHEMICALS: Taziz fulfils Abu Dhabi’s chemical ambitions at pace
    > POWER: UAE power sector hits record $8.9bn in contracts
    > WATER: Tunnel projects set pace for UAE water sector
    > CONSTRUCTION: UAE construction faces delivery pressures
    > TRANSPORT: $70bn infrastructure schemes underpin UAE economic expansion

    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/14933968/main.gif
    MEED Editorial
  • Oman tenders industrial city infrastructure contracts

    24 October 2025

     

    Oman’s Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) has issued two tenders for infrastructure development works at Al‑Suwaiq Industrial City in Al‑Batinah North Governorate and Madha Industrial City in Musandam Governorate.

    Madayn issued a tender on 21 October inviting companies to bid for a contract to develop the first phase of the infrastructure and utilities network at Al‑Suwaiq Industrial City.

    The scope covers construction of a building, greenhouses, roads, water network, electricity and sewage networks, and other associated facilities.

    The bid submission deadline is 30 November.

    The tender for construction of infrastructure works at Madha Industrial City was also issued on 21 October, with a submission deadline of 30 November. 

    In December 2023, Madayn inaugurated two projects at Al-Mazunah Free Zone valued at RO9.5m ($25m), including a facility building project and phase one package two and phases two and three at Al-Mazunah Free Zone.

    Madayn, OQ Refineries & Petrochemical Industries and the Industrial Innovation Academy signed an agreement in June 2022 to set up Ladayn Polymer Park in Sohar.

    At that time, Madayn also signed seven land‑usufruct agreements with an extendable duration of 33 years at reduced prices with the investors.

    According to a report from UK-based data analytics provider GlobalData, the output of the Omani construction industry is expected to register annual growth of 4.2% from 2025 to 2027, supported by investments in economic zones, renewable energy, manufacturing and tourism projects under Vision 2040.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/14933905/main.jpg
    Yasir Iqbal
  • Petrofac submits lowest bid of $1.48bn for Kuwait oil project

    24 October 2025

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    UK‑based Petrofac has submitted the lowest bid for a contract to install Water Injection Plant 4 (WIP‑4) in south Kuwait.

    Petrofac submitted a bid of KD453,736,367 ($1.48bn), which is 7% lower than the KD488,378,247 ($1.59bn) submitted by India’s Larsen & Toubro, the only other company to bid for the project.

    The project’s bid deadline was postponed at least 14 times before prices were ultimately submitted.

    The main contract tender was originally issued by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) on 11 August 2024, with a bid submission deadline of 10 November 2024.

    The project includes:

    • Construction of a water injection plant called WIP-4
    • Installation of safety and security systems
    • Laying of pipelines
    • Installation of oil gathering systems
    • Installation of the new well pads
    • Construction of associated facilities

    When it was first tendered in August last year, nine companies were qualified to bid. They were:

    • Samsung Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
    • Sinopec Luoyand Engineering Company (China)
    • Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company (South Korea)
    • Sinopec Engineering Incorporation (China)
    • Larsen & Toubro (India)
    • Petrofac International (UK)
    • Saipem (Italy)
    • Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
    • Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

    Kuwait is currently trying to boost project activity in its upstream sector.

    The country’s national oil company, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), is aiming to increase oil production capacity to 4 million barrels a day by 2035.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/14933876/main.jpg
    Wil Crisp