RAK Ceramics to invest Dh140m in expansion

RAK Ceramics will invest Dh140 million in expansion, including Dh60 million in a 30,000 square metre per day production plant.

This will raise its capacity to 132,000 square metres of ceramic and gres porcelain tiles per day.

A further Dh60 million will be used to establish a plant in China, while another Dh20 million will be spent on a plant to produce an additional 1,000 pieces of vitreous china sanitaryware per day, from an output of 5,000 pieces.

The company has set up manufacturing and processing plants in Bangladesh and Slovakia.

"With these investments, total investment made by RAK Cera-mics will rise to Dh1.2 billion. In 2003, we will manufacture 50 million square metres of tiles and two million pieces of sanitaryware which will make us the No. 1 maker of tiles and sanitaryware in the world in terms of volume," said Dr. Khater Massaad, general manager of RAK Ceramics.

"We have acquired 120,000 square metres of land in Guang-dong province in China and production will start in June."

He is not worried by Chinese products flooding the market. "We enjoy a 80 per cent market share in the UAE, which consumes about 25 per cent of our production. The balance 75 per cent is exported to Australia, Greece, Germany and Hong Kong.

"In the sanitaryware market, the U.S., UK and South Africa remain our top export destinations, which speaks of the quality of our products."

RAK Ceramics invested Dh3.65 million in acquiring new technology at the Big 5 show. The company's turnover is expected to rise to Dh700 million this year from Dh650 million last year.

"We expect it to go up to Dh800 million next year. Net profit may not rise accordingly due to capital investment. However, it will grow significantly in 2004."