UAE's Ducab gets a lift from high-voltage cables, rods in first-half 2020
Owned by Dubai and Abu Dhabi, manufacturing giant focussed on costs
Dubai: Ducab recorded gains from its high voltage cables, while sales of copper rods were up 15 per cent in the first six months of 2020.
But its overall cable business, the largest part of the group, turned in “flat sales” of just under 40,000 MT of conductors. But all through the pandemic-imposed period, Ducab ensured its operations remained uninterrupted.
It supplied cables and accessories to customers in more than 22 markets. UAE consumed the largest share of the cable and wire production with demand from utilities, construction industry, and oil and gas sector “fared better than expectation”.
“Ducab cables and metals businesses have thus remained profitable during an extremely challenging time,” said Dr. Ahmad Bin Hassan Al Shaikh, Chairman. “Effective cost control measures across all business areas enabled the group to partially offset the effects of margin pressures.
“Strong cashflows allowed debt levels to reduce in the core business."
Ducab has thus brought down total borrowings by 43 per cent compared to first-half 2019 levels.
Increased capacity
Ducab is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi's ADQ (through Senaat) and ICD of Dubai, and has six manufacturing facilities across four sites in the UAE. The group has a manufacturing capability of over 115,000 metal tonnes of high-, medium-, and low-voltage cable solutions, an upgraded production capacity of 180,000 tonnes of copper rod and wire per annum, and 55,000 tonnes per annum of aluminium rod and overhead conductor.
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