Fujairah manufacturing sector grows

More than one-third of the factories in Fujairah produce non-metallic mineral products that comprise mainly building material, according to the statistical yearbook of 2001 recently released by the Fujairah Department of Statistics and Planning.

In second place, accounting for about 15 per cent of the factories, is the sector dealing with food, beverages and tobacco, chemical and plastic products, as well as fabricated metal and equipment.

Textiles, ready-made garments and leather rank third, and paper, printing and publishing products rank last. The statistics also show that Fujairah has no factories that make wood, furniture and basic metal products.

The total amount of capital invested in the 33 factories operating in Fujairah is Dh699.5 million. Of this amount, about 70 per cent is invested in non-metallic mineral products, and about 24 per cent in food, beverages and tobacco.

The remaining six per cent is shared between fabricated metal and equipment, paper, printing and publishing products, chemical and plastic, and textiles, ready-made garments and leather, in descending order.

Furthermore, the size of the labour force working in the manufacturing industry shows that the non-metallic mineral industry accounts for 46.3 per cent of the total 2,966 workers.

The textiles, ready-made garments and leather industry employs 23.8 per cent of the total work force, with the food, beverages and tobacco in third place, followed by chemical and plastic products; paper, printing and publishing products; and fabricated metal and equipment, respectively.

The non-metallic mineral industry - which captures the highest share of the Fujairah manufacturing sector in terms of number of factories, capital invested, and workers - produces building material and stones crushers.

In fact, factories specialising in stone crushers comprise only 18 per cent of this category. This makes Fujairah a specialised base for the manufacture of building materials.

Although the three categories of food, beverages and tobacco; chemical and plastic; fabricated metal and equipment have an equal number of factories, they vary in the number of workers employed and the amount of capital invested.

Being a capital-intensive industry, the food and beverages industry requires almost one-quarter of the capital invested in the Fujairah manufacturing sector.

It is important to note that while factories specialising in milk and milk products equalled those that specialise in food processing, the Dh140.8 million invested in the latter activity was five times greater than the capital invested in the milk industry since food processing requires more expensive equipment.

Similarly, the Dh10 million invested in the capital-intensive plastic industry is five times greater than the amount invested in producing chemical products.

Of the Dh13.7 million invested in the paper, printing and publishing industry, only 20 per cent is invested in the production of paper and the rest allocated to the printing and publishing industry.

Although the textile, ready-made garments and leather industry sector has fewer factories, it captures the second largest share of the total labour force as it is a labour-intensive industry.

In general, the private sector owns more that 70 per cent of the factories operating in Fujairah, the government sector 18.2 per cent, and public shareholder establishments 9.1 per cent. Attracting investors from the private sector, Fujairah has become a hub for a growing manufacturing industry.