MEP JAN 2012

FIRECODE ANALYSIS

MIDDLE EAST NEWS UPDATE | 04COMMENT | 16ANALYSIS | 18

INTERVIEW | 28PRODUCTS | 46

THE LAST WORD | 48 An ITP Business Publication | April 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 4Essential information for mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC professionals An ITP Business Publication | January 2012 Vol. 7 Issue 1

MEP AWARD WINNERS

Celebrate the projects and companies that make MEP tick

ALSO: STANISLAS LACROIX ON TAKING OVER ALDES

RISING SONBURAK KIZILHAN’S PLANS FOR AE ARMA-ELEKTROPANC

THE YEAR AHEADTHE EXPERTS CAST

THEIR EYE OVER 2012

2011 CC Best O&M District Cooling service provider2011 CC Best O&M Chiller Service Provider2010 GCC MEP Service Provider of the Year2010 MEP Specialist Contractor of the Year2008 MEP Specialist Contractor of the Year2007 MEP Specialist Contractor of the Year

January 2012 | MEP Middle East 1www.constructionweekonline.com

JANUARY 2012 VOLUME 7 ISSUE 01

CONTENTS04 NEWS

SMAC joint venture bids for Abu Dhabi terminal contract

10 NEWS UPDATE Etisalat and Pacific Control tie up to cut the UAE’s carbon footprint

16 COMMENT Gavin Davids on how everyone’s a winner in MEP in 2011

18 NEWS ANALYSIS Big money spinners for the HVAC indus-try and how district cooling is failing

44-47 PRODUCT FOCUS Checking out the latest MEP related products to hit the market

48 THE LAST WORDStanislas Lacroix on his plans for Aldes after taking it over from his father

BIG INTERVIEWMEP Middle East talks to AE Arma-Elek-tropanc about their expansion plans

THE YEAR OF COMPETITIONMEP experts give us their thoughts on what lies ahead for the industry in 2012

28

40

22

32

SITE VISIT MEP Middle East is taken on a tour of the Rixos Palm Jumeirah as it scrambles to hit its January 1, 2012 deadline

AWARD WINNERS MEP Middle East celebrates the achievements of the MEP industry at a gala banquet at the Address Marina in Dubai

www.constructionweekonline.com

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HVAC

ANALYSIS

MIDDLE EAST NEWS UPDATE | 04COMMENT | 16ANALYSIS | 18

INTERVIEW | 28PRODUCTS | 46

THE LAST WORD | 48 An ITP Business Publication | April 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 4Essential information for mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC professionals An ITP Business Publication | December 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 12

SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS

Bill Jolly on bringing MEP around to sustainability benefi ts

ALSO: ALESSA’S ABDULLAH ABDUL-KAREEM ON 2012

SMOKE AND WATER

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NEWS UPDATE

4 MEP Middle East | January 2012 www.constructionweekonline.com

JOINT VENTURE

A joint-venture between AE Arma-Elektropanc, Habtoor Leighton Spe-con, Cobra (part of Spain’s ACS Group) and Mapco has submit-ted a tender for all MEP and related services on the Midfi eld Terminal Building project in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

The joint venture, known as SMAC, has a combined workforce of around 10,000 people and a number of years of experience in the air-port industry.

“This collaboration provides the highest calibre of professionals for added value servic-es to ensure best indus-try practices are ad-opted and implemented during construction,” a spokesperson from SMAC said in a state-ment announcing the joint venture.

and close-out processes, which will be in conjunc-tion with experienced in-dustry professionals.

The MEP works for the Midfi eld Terminal project includes the sup-ply and installation of standby generators, LV distribution, small power

and lighting electrical systems, medium voltage power distribution sys-tems, earthing and bond-ing systems, lightening protection systems, fi re alarm and suppression systems, fi re fi ghting sys-tems, a HVAC plant and related systems.

Four company venture hopes industry relevant experience will lead to successful bid

The SMAC joint venture will have a combined workforce of 10,000 people for the Midfi eld Terminal.

The joint venture’s tender will also see it bid to work on building management systems, domestic water servic-es, including storage treatment and distribu-tion, drainage systems and the containment for/integration of spe-cialist ELV services.

“We expect the contract to be awarded in 2012 sometime and believe that with this joint venture, we will have a good chance,” a source closely connected to the bid told MEP Middle East.

workforce of the joint venture

10,000

SMAC joint venture bids for Abu Dhabi’s Midfi eld MEP contract

FAIR SHAREPROFIT AND PAYOUT

MIDDLE EAST SPECIALISED CABLES COMPANYThis publically listed Saudi Arabian company is a manufacturer of industrial, instrumentation and process control cables that measure up to the highest industry standards. The manufacturer is ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 certifi ed.

TABREEDYear to Date fi gures (September 30, 2011 YTD)

$35.3mNet profi t YTD

$193.8mChilled water

revenues

$229.2mGroup revenue YTD

The SMAC JV will also be supported by Atkins and GHESA Internation-al to provide engineering and design services, Ar-ma-Elektropanc added.

If the bid is successful, the two companies will also overview the Test-ing and Commissioning

20%

10%

0%

-10%

-20%

-30

-402011 Mar MAY Jul Sep Nov


NEWS UPDATE

January 2012 | MEP Middle East 5

DSK aims to deliver the university project by 2015, Tabari says. The total value of purchase orders for December is $293.3m.

INVESTMENT

CONTRACT

Drake & Scull Kuwait (DSK) has won a $54.45m MEP contract for the College of Art at the Sabah Al Salem University in Kuwait, the company has announced.

The contract will see the Kuwaiti subsidiary of Drake & Scull International (DSI) adopt specific design poli-cies and apply proven technologies and systems from previous educational projects for the project, CEO Khal-doun Tabari said.

“We intend to mobilise on-site shortly, and expect to deliver the project in March 2015,” confirmed Tabari.

“DSI has a reputable experience in the educational development industry, and is specialised in integrated MEP services for schools and universities’ facilities.”

Since its inception in 2004, DSK has been involved in a number of Kuwait’s top engineering projects.

Honeywell has announced an expansion of its Iraqi investment with the opening of a full-service office in Basra. This is its second office to open in Iraq since 2010.

With a larger presence in the country than any of its competitors, Honeywell will use its new office to deliver leading-edge automation and control solutions, equipment and services. The new facility will also support the company’s training and sales capabili-ties throughout the country.

Iraq’s hydrocarbon industry is undergoing significant change and growth in the midst of reconstruction.

Honeywell technology is instrumental in providing the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and as-sociated entities with optimal control of its production, efficiency and profitability.

CABLES

Saudi Cable Company said it has secured orders from two of Korea’s biggest construction firms, taking its to-tal order values for December to more than $266.6m.

The Jeddah supplier of copper cables has claimed a $16.79m order from Doosan Company, a diversified firm covering construction and engineering among other sectors, and a $14.93m order from Hyundai En-gineering, both mandates will be supplied at the start of next year.

It added that the total value of purchase orders this month is around $293.3m, “with better rates than those prevailing in the earlier months”. The company did not disclose the origin or customers making the other or-ders, but added that this includes clients in Russia, Italy and England.

Saudi Cable Company manufactures and markets of electrical power and telecommunications cables of varying voltages and supplies services for power and telecom projects including design, engineering, instal-lation and finance.

The deals end a profitable year for the company, having made a $7.46m profit for the first nine months against a $25.85m loss in the same period last year.

Honeywell plans Iraqi expansion

DSK wins $54.45m Kuwait MEP contract

Saudi Cable Co signs major Korean deals

MEP contract win at the Sabah Al Salem University

$54.45M

COPPER

NICKEL

STEEL

METALS PRICES

Source: London Metal Exchange, prices per tonne

$726820 December

$744830 November

$54030 November

$52030 November

$1834520 December

$1698030 November

NEWS UPDATE


UAE FIRE SAFETY LEADS THE WORLD - FIRE SYSTEMS EXPERT

The UAE is leading the world when it comes to designing fire life and safety systems in high-rise buildings, a Dubai based fire engineering expert has said.

Ordinarily, when fires break out on a certain floor, the lift shafts and stairwells in the building serve as pressurised chambers that help to contain the flames and smoke on that level, allowing people to exit the building safely, Graeme Stewart, an associate with Ramboll’s Building Services division, told MEP Middle East. This is standard NFPA proce-dure, he added.

“However, the pressurisation code in Dubai in particular, doesn’t quite

follow NFPA. We’ve got what’s known as a ‘sandwich effect’ on floors, where we actually do extract smoke from the floor where the fire is taking place,” he explained.

“From the floor above and the floor below, we positively and negatively pressurise the air. That doesn’t take place in most other countries; it’s kind of specific to the UAE.”

“What it does is whenever the fire is taking place, you extract the air, and because you’re pressurising the above and below floors, you’re not allowing smoke or the fire to spread, you contain the fire within one level,” Stewart said.

“It is a good way to do it,” he added.

LIGHTING

Phillips will discontinue the production of its 75-watt incandescent lamps as of January next year in a drive to continue its efforts to phase out the inefficient bulbs.

The lamps will be replaced with energy efficient alternatives like compact fluores-cent lamps (CFL), energy saving halogens and LED bulbs. CFL’s themselves are up to five times more efficient as they need around five times less energy to generate the same amount of light when compared with traditional incandescent bulbs which waste 90% of energy as heat.

Phillips phases out inefficient bulbs

Dubai company completes Saudi data centre project

DATA CENTRE

APC by Schneider Electric, the Dubai headquartered power and cooling services provider, has completed the successful installation of a data centre for Future Systems in the King-dom of Saudi Arabia.

A provider of IT solutions and systems, broadband inter-net, data communications and integrated network services to the GCC market, Future System’s Riyadh office was supplied with APC’s InfraStruXure architecture. Work on the project began earlier this year.

“We primarily service all types of business customers with a complete portfolio of internet services, all of which flow through our data centre.

“We cannot afford to have any outages, as these have a di-rect impact on our customer base and revenue; we stand to lose millions a year,” said Ayman Al Jehane, managing direc-tor of Future Systems.

“InfraStrucXure’s modular design offers scalability, mak-ing capital expenditure more attractive. The infrastructure empowers data centre managers to investigate ways to im-prove efficiency, reduce costs and carbon footprints,” Al Je-hane, added.

“Our ultimate aim is to help organisations plan and manage their data centre infrastructure to significantly reduce their capex through scalable pay-as-you-grow options.

“Additionally, the adoption of in-row cooling and hot aisle containment that offers higher energy efficiency helps bring down operational expenditures,” said Jeff De Sousa, VP, APC by Schneider Electric - Saudi Arabia.

Installation began earlier this year, has boosted energy efficiency

Outbreaks of fire

The InfraStrucXure system will reduce power consumption.

Year the retrofit of the data centre began

2011

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Technology meets Design

NEWS UPDATE


High investment costs will hamper uptake of district cooling, Saudi company says

District Cooling won’t replace HVAC, Aleesa managing director says

SOLAR

The cost of electricity in the GCC is hold-ing back the uptake of solar powered wa-ter heating systems in the region, the area manager of Ariston Thermo Middle East told MEP Middle East.

As electricity rates in the Middle East are among the lowest in the world, there are no incentives for end users to install energy saving water heating technology, Emanuele Stano said.

“Here in the Middle East, people are still not massive users of solar thermal technology. This is normal as it will take time to introduce the technology. The cost of electricity is still extremely low here in the region. If you put down numbers, it’s still not economically convenient to install.”

HVAC

District cooling does not pose a notable threat to traditional HVAC in the region, according to Abdullah M. Abdul-Kareem, the MD of HVAC manufacturer Alessa.

The Saudi Arabian HVAC manufacturer and contractor has reg-istered a growth of around 20% over the year, with its retail and con-tracting arms growing by about 15% and 30% respectively.

Given the rate of growth and the introduction of new energy-saving HVAC technologies, Abdul-Kareem said he remained unconcerned about the challenge district cooling represented to his industry.

“Dubai was the first to adopt this kind of technology, and it’s al-ready been implemented. [But] other GCC countries are still in a study stage and looking at some of the benefits and obstacles of that type of technology,” he said.

“The technology itself requires heavy investment at the start; the savings come through the better usage of this type of air-condition-ing. Plus the savings will only happen for the contractors who are building the houses, the skyscrapers, the malls and the large commercial build-ings, so they don’t have to worry about installing central units or local split units,” he added.

“It is a new technology and it has its advantages and disadvantages. But it still requires more study in order to see the real obsta-cles,” Abdul-Kareem said. District cooling doesn’t worry Abdul-Kareem.

GCC electricity killing solar water tech

“Estidama is trying to achieve more than just transformation, and the supply chain is key to this.”

Medina Works MD RYM BAOUENDI on sustainability prog-ress in Abu Dhabi

2012 CALENDAR

EVENTS

AWARDS

MAY 2012Super Talls Saudi ArabiaDate: March 2012Venue: TBC

MAY 2012MEP Middle East Forum, QatarDate: May 2012Venue: TBC

SEPTEMBERConstruction Week Awards QatarDate: September 2012Place: TBA

NOVEMBERConstruction Week KSA AwardsDate: November 2012Place: TBA

DECEMBERConstruction Week AwardsDate: December 2012Place: TBC

MEP Middle East AwardsDate: December 2012Place: TBC

GCC residents are not massive users of solar tech.

“Neither the utility companies, nor the various Federal or Local Governments have put any plan (in place) to use ex-cess district cooling capacity.”DC Pro Engineering’s GEORGE BEBARI highlights an issue with district cooling planning.

“There seems to be a stigma that, if you’re provid-ing a sustainable solution, then it’s much more ex-pensive.”

BILL JOLLY, head of MEP at KEO International Consultants on implementing

sustainabil-ity in the

GCC

“We’re convinced that the day will come when people will be obliged to use solar water tech-nology.”

SERGE RAvEYRE, sales manager of Atlantic International, on the adoption of energy

efficient water heaters

APRIL 2012World Cup Qatar Date: April 2012Venue: TBC

No incentive to switch to energy saving devices

CORRECTION:Page 14 of December’s issue of

MEP Middle East stated incorrectly that Geberit was a German pipe and bathroom fittings manufacturer.

This is incorrect and should read as a ‘Swiss’ pipe and bathroom fittings manufacturer.

MEP Middle East apologises for the error.


NEWS UPDATE

JANUARY 2012 | MEP Middle East 9

SECTOR: Education/Tourism

PROJECT: Sheikh Zayed Desert Learning Centre

VALUE: Unspecified

MAIN CONTRACTOR : Ed. Züblin AG

STATUS CONSTRUCTION:Currently under construction although the structure of the project is now complete. The scheduled delivery date is August 2012. The building will contain a wealth of energy saving measures intended to cut consumption by 40%. The roof will be covered in photovoltaic panels, which aim to generate 236mWh/year and shave 17% off energy usage.

SOURCE:Construction Week/Middle East Architect

The Sheikh Zayed Desert Learning Centre is a cross between a museum and a sci-ence centre. A tribute to the late Sheikh Zayed, it is the first building to achieve a FIVE PEARL RATING AT THE DESIGN STAGE BY ESTIDAMA.

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NEWS UPDATE


TECHNOLOGY

Etisalat and Pacific Con-trol have launched a joint venture which will help reduce the UAE’s carbon footprint by increasing the energy efficiency of its buildings.

The first phase of the project has witnessed a large number of govern-ment entities signing up for the initiative, which is being rolled out across the country by the Minis-try of Water and Environ-ment, UAE.

“UAE has a significant carbon footprint, due to unabated energy con-sumption that is creat-ing immense ecological, social and environmental pressure,” said Abdulla Ebrahim Al Ahmed, se-nior vice president, Busi-ness Solutions at Etisalat, during the launch of the new programme.

“The Emirates Energy Star programme will le-verage on Machine to Ma-chine based technologies, to effectively help reduce the carbon footprint of the country through efficient energy consumption man-agement,” he added.

Machine to machine communication is a rela-tively new technology that allows both wireless and wired systems to commu-nicate with other devices of the same ability. M2M, as it is also known, uses a device such as a sensor or metre to capture tem-peratures or other such relevant information.

could see a major reduc-tion in energy usage, due to the effectiveness of the technology in being able to cut down the building’s energy consumption.

“If your building isn’t new and if it hasn’t got modern building man-agement systems or con-nectivity within it, we can go to the devices that consume the maximum energy. Normally that’s the heating or cooling systems, mainly chillers in our part of the world.

Approximately 70% of the energy consumed within a building is by its cooling system,” Rahulan explained at the launch.

“We’re able to address the device at a local level by being able to put low cost software installa-tions on top of the chiller, thus being able to talk to it in real time. This is the whole revolution that is taking place, machine to machine,” Rahulan added.

“Machine to machine communication is a whole new philosophy where everything in the world that relates to inanimate objects, whether run by power or electricity, would begin communicat-ing with each other. This huge database would then enable us to make them perform on demand.”

“So there’s no prereq-uisite, any building of a particular size, that has a value proposition in terms of saving energy, could be addressed,” he said.

Etisalat and Pacific Controls to cut UAE carbon footprintProject uses wireless and wired systems communication to cut down energy usage

The joint venture says that it aims to cut down energy usuage in buildings all across the country.

We’re able to address the device at a local level by being able to put low cost software installations on top of the chiller, thus being able to talk to it in real time. “ Dilip Rahulan

This is then relayed through a network and into a software pro-gramme, which then translates the captured information into an alert in a command centre.

Etisalat clients, whether they are build-ing owners, contractors, real-estate companies or government entities, can collaborate with Etisalat and Pacific Controls to leverage the resources of the EES programme.

Using Etisalat networks and Pacific Controls com-mand control centre, the initiative will be able to reduce end user utility consumption and service

costs, increase the ef-ficiency of their existing assets and have the capa-bility to remotely manage them in real time.

In addition, the pro-gramme will help build-ing owners with an initial audit that will identify potential Energy Conser-vation Measures. The programme would then design ECMs for indi-vidual buildings; establish minimum costs; calculate the maximum energy savings and finally, imple-ment the project param-eters as a contractor.

It will also provide on-going monitoring and identification of project

performance after project completion; along with carrying out measure-ment and verification of carbon footprint of build-ings in real time.

Rahulan said that the initiative was a viable in-troduction to the UAE market because it was able to be installed on any building, as long as the in-frastructure was already in place.

Older buildings in the UAE will also be able to benefit from this joint en-ergy saving initiative.

Rahulan said that by installing the Emirates Energy Star programme in buildings, end users

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NEWS UPDATE


ELEVATORS

The Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corporation (TLEC) has announced the launch of a UAE-based subsidiary, through which it hopes to tap into the Middle East-ern market.

At present the corpo-ration’s UAE business is handled by the Dubai-based Dhaher Al Muhairi Company (DMCO).

However, Toshiba said that it had reached an agreement with its share-holders on 28 November about establishing a new company through the in-crease of DMCO’s capital. The new company’s name was also officially estab-lished as Toshiba Eleva-tor Middle East.

“Toshiba Elevators has been aggressive in the market for the past four years. In spite of the market recessiion period, we were able to maintain a decent share in the market,” said Mohamed Iqbal, managing director of Middle Eastern opera-tions, TLEC.

Hydra Commercial Investments is the third partner in the new busi-ness. It is part of the Royal Group of Companies and its group chairman is Sheikh Thanoon Bin Za-yed Al Nahyan.

DMCO has been TELC’s distributor since 1999, and has handled sales, installations and maintenance of its eleva-tor products in the UAE.

Toshiba Elevator’s president, Mr Shinichiro Akiba, at the launch of the new UAE based subsidary.

nine of the 19 towers. The total number of elevator units contracted is over 100. Most of them are high-speed elevators of up to 6m/s.” he explained.

He added that the company currently has a ‘respectable market share’, and that it aims to become one of the market front runners over the next year.

Following the estab-lishment of the new com-pany in the UAE, TELC plans to expand further into the GCC and the Middle East, using the Dubai office as a regional headquarters.

As a prelude to this plan taking effect, the Japanese company has begun securing proj-ects in Oman and Saudi Arabia. It is also in an advanced stage of finalis-ing projects in Qatar and neighbouring countries.

There are currently around 300 staff present in the UAE, with engi-neering and administra-tive personnel account-ing for 62 of them.

In addition to these staff members, the com-pany has brought in two full time staff members from their head offices to handle the engineering and design departments.

Iqbal added that the Japanese company will look at sending down staff members to work on selected projects depend-ing on the requirements laid out by clients.

“The elevators are completed in all towers and they are being hand-ed over in stages. The ex-pected completion date of the handover process will be in another couple of months,” Iqbal explained.

It is currently working on executing similar tow-er projects in the City of Lights, Reem Island and other parts of Abu Dhabi, totalling around $27.4m.

“In City of Lights, works are going on in

Toshiba Elevators announc-es launch of UAE subsidaryCompany will team up with Dubai’s DMCO and Hydra Commercial Investments

The Dubai based com-pany has carried out a number of projects in the emirate for clients such as Nakheel, and has com-pleted 420 sets of eleva-tors in Dubai alone.

In addition, DMCO has also completed a mega-project worth approxi-mately $29.9m, which involved 14 towers with 60 high-speed gearless el-evators in Marina Square.

value of recently completed mega-project in Marina Square, Abu Dhabi

$29.9M

In City of Lights, works are going on in nine of the 19 towers. The total number of elevator units contracted is over 100. Most of them are high-speed elevators of up to 6m/s. “ Mohamed Iqbal

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE


TransGulf optimistic about booking contracts in 2012Dubai owned company calls 2011 ‘a learning curve peroid on how to do business in Qatar’

“The market has strong supplier domination in deci-sion making on pro-jects procurement.” - TransGulf

Trans Gulf International Electro-Mechanical started its journey in Doha in the middle of 2010, with much eff ort expended in ironing out an agreement with a with an infl uential local Qatari partner. It was established as a legal entity by October 2010.

It was fortunate for the company that also same time it had a tender to bid for by July/Aug 2010 which was being followed against all competition of MEP Contractors in Doha. The company took a bold decision by middle of October in taking its fi rst MEP sub contract from a well-known multinational Main Con-tractor WCT from Malaysia.

This contract was close to 300 million QR for MEP works for a prestigious government project. (Project name confi dential due to a directive from government).

After a prolonged process of taking approval from various authorities, the company settled down to take on the project in hand by April 2011.

The company called this period a learning curve of how to do business in Qatar and was able, due to this experience, get awarded an-other project from Amana Qatar Contracting for the Q-Tel Technical and Customer Care Building for about 100 million QR.

This project again was against stiff competi-tion in the market.

The company then quickly had to the shift it’s operation on Engineering and Procure-ment as being done from Dubai, the TGIEM parent company Trans Gulf Dubai and partially being done in Doha and partially in

Dubai resulting in much quicker response on the project.

The challenge the company faced on mul-tiple fronts, starting from Business Practices, was in Doha being diff erent from Dubai. Where, many a time, it realised there was a cultural factor to be recognised in dealing with people.

The other challenge is building a workforce in Doha for executing projects. It is quite diffi cult with the visa procedures and the lead time to get engineers and workers legal status to live in Doha. This becomes more of a task if there is a project on hand.

Lastly the market has strong supplier domination in decision making on projects procurement. It takes a while to understand and then be able to deliver the engineering and procurement part of the project eff ectively.

Fortunately for TGIEM we have gone through this learning process and in 2012 are looking forward to booking further contracts to deliver the MEP part of projects in time, at the right quality, within a competitive price.

TGIEM was established in Qatar in 2010.

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COMMENT

will local MEP companies step up?

2012

Gavin Davids says that the outlook for 2012 shows a shift in priorities for the MEP industry in the Middle East

T he end of 2011 saw the fifth edition of the MEP Awards being held at the Address Marina in Dubai. The event brings down the curtain for the year and celebrates the people, projects and companies that made a difference to

the MEP industry.As per usual, there were a few disgruntled nominees, upset that

their projects didn’t win the top prize. At the risk of sounding sadis-tic, I’m actually quite pleased to see a reaction like that. After all, seeing such raw emotion on display means that these are individu-als who care deeply about what they do and how they contribute towards MEP.

That such passion abounds can only help serve the interests of the industry in the long run. I hope this means that we’re in line for a stellar line up of nominations at the end of this year, replete with pro-jects that aim to make a significant difference to how the industry ap-proaches challenging MEP related situations onsite.

It’s easy to underestimate how much these awards mean to the winners. Sure, it’s easy to get a bit jaded and claim that they’re nothing more than an ego boost, but try telling that to the winner who said to me after he’d picked up his award: “It’s a big achievement for us to be recognized by the indus-try. It shows that we’re now one of the established, that we’re rec-ognised by our peers, that we’re a company that is going places.”

You really can’t argue with that. As we closed the door on 2011, thoughts turn towards the year

ahead. Although 2011 ended on something of a high note, with the industry registering slight overall growth, most companies will be quite upfront in telling you that that it was something of a struggle to get to where they are.

So then, what does 2012 have in store for us? Talking to a few ex-perts who have their ear to the ground, the prevalent feeling seems to be one of cautious optimism, as companies who were focused on consolidating their assets last year are now looking to achieve sustained growth, rather attempt those grandiose schemes and ex-travagant projects.

As Khaldoun Tabari muses, the most likely scenario is that while the construction industry in the GCC will continue to grow at a steady rate, the strongest acceleration will come from the government sector, where funding for public infrastructure will continue to receive strong support from regional lead-ers, as they strive to meet promises made.

However, where we’re likely to see the most impressive growth is within the transporta-tion sector. With the Etihad Rail and other assorted railway projects finally beginning to

gather steam, the likelihood of MEP contractors getting a slice of the pie is a major possibility.

As David Crow-der, who knows better than most says, “the pros-pects for the trans-port sector really

are excellent, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the major markets for our design services, not only for next year, but well into the future.”

Where ever the growth in the industry comes from, what is certain is that we’re go-ing to see a definite increase in competition in the industry. MEP contractors, consultants and suppliers will be muscling into the mar-ket, looking to grab a slice of the pie.

It’s up to the local, established companies here to stand their ground and raise the bar on these newcomers. 2012 is the year of com-petition, of that there is no doubt. But the great thing about compeitition is that it brings out the best in people. So everyone’s a winner.

Gavin Davids is deputy editor of MEP.

Everyone’s a winner

2012 is the year of competition, of that there’s no doubt. But the great thing about competition is that it brings out the best in people.“

NEWS ANALYSIS


FIRE GUTS SHARJAH HIGH-RISEAPARTMENT BLOCK

Six people required hospital treatment after a fire gutted 17 floors of a 33-storey residential building in the Al Nahda area of Sharjah earlier this month.

Fire alarms throughout the Al Aneeqah Tower sounded as the blaze broke out at 12:50am. The high-rise was successfully evacuated by rescue services before it grew out of control.

Those airlifted to hospital included two Jordanian men suffering from smoke inhalation and a Palestinian mother and her three children.

No other casualties were reported by the authorities.

The Director General of Sharjah Civil Defence, Brigadier Abdullah

MEP Middle East talks to experts about the impact the

UAE’s Fire and Life Safety Code will have on MEP

A spate of fires breaking out in high-rise residential tow-ers and labour camps in the last year has resulted in dozens of deaths and severe injuries.

Investigations into these tragedies have revealed a uniform picture of neglect and unawareness on the behalf of builders, who claimed that they were unaware of the requisite fire safety norms that they should have been using.

Stung by the accusations, the UAE’s Civil Defence leapt into ac-tion and introduced a universal fire and life safety code in July 2011.

Also known as NFPA – 101, the Fire and Life Safety Code is the first standardised piece of legislation to be introduced in the UAE, in fact in the whole GCC. Its introduction has been warmly welcomed by the region’s MEP industry professionals as they finally have coherent directions to follow.

As the code itself states, the ‘need for a modern, up-to-date fire code addressing conditions hazardous to life and property from fire, explosion, handling or use of hazardous materials, and the use and occupancy of buildings and materials.’

“The Code addresses those constructions, protection and oc-cupancy features necessary to minimise danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat and toxic gases created during a fire,” it states.

NFPA – 101 aims to help minimise the threat posed by fire to life and property through providing clear guidelines to fire safety engineers and consultants to ensure that when they de-sign a system it keeps regulations proven to work effectively.

It also establishes minimum criteria for the designs of egress facilities to allow prompt escape of occupants from buildings or, where desirable, into safe areas within buildings.

NFPA-101 recognises that life safety “is more than a matter of egress”. It also addresses protective features and systems, building services, operating features, maintenance activities and other provisions “in recognition of the fact that achieving an acceptable degree of life safety depends on additional safe-guards to provide adequate egress time or protection for people exposed to fire”.

Although there have been previous incarnations introduced into the market, for far too long they remained fragmented and contradictory, with the likes of Abu Dhabi following one set

of regulations, while Dubai went separely along its own path.

The resulting chaos left fire systems en-gineers clueless as they attempted to mud-dle through the mire, while trying to satisfy their clients’ needs and requirements.

As Peterson Melegrito, a fire engineer with Ramboll Middle East says, the new code unifies all the facets of fire engineer-ing into one simple, homogenous body of work that provides a clear picture to those designing protection systems for buildings.

“Before it used to be that Abu Dhabi had its own code while Dubai operated under its own code, [now] the regulations are more along the lines of Dubai’s previous regula-tions. In Abu Dhabi, they used two separate pump sets for high-rise buildings, but the new regulations mean that they have to use only one pump set for both the sprinklers and the stand by system, [...] more in line with what Dubai did previously,” he said.

Regulation Fire

STANDARDISED REGULATIONS

The Fire and Life Safety code will provide clear guidelines

to contractors and designers.


NEWS ANALYSIS


Other countries consider lift shafts as sealed elements where the risk of smoke rising from one floor to the next is minimal. They use lift shafts and stairwells in a build-ing as pressurised chambers that contain the fire to the level the fire breaks out on, says Graeme Stewart, an associate at Ram-boll’s Building Services division.

The method described conforms to standard NFPA procedure, however, the UAE has taken that one step further.

“The pressurisation code in Dubai in par-ticular, doesn’t quite follow NFPA,” says Stewart. We’ve got what’s known as a ‘sand-wich effect’ on floors, where we actually ex-tract smoke from the floor where the fire is taking place.”

“From the floor above and the floor be-low, we positively and negatively pressurise the air (using the ventilation system). That doesn’t happen in most countries, it’s spe-cific to the UAE,” he adds.

JULY 2011 – THE MONTH NFPA – 101 CAME INTO BEING

900

Estimated number of injuries caused annually on a global level by high rise fires

60

Estimated annual number of civilian deaths caused by high rise fires globally

15,000 Estimated annual

number of high rise structure fires

globally

Source: Facilities Management

Estimated costs in property loss caused by high-rise fires globally

$250 m

The Code addresses those constructions, protection and occupancy features necessary to minimise danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat and toxic gases created during a fire.“ NFPA 101

A significant step forwards has been the introduction of a local regulation to help combat smoke build-up in the case of a fire.

NEWS ANALYSIS


Saeed Al Suwaid, was unable to comment on the cause of the fire when contacted by MEP Middle East.

However, reports from a senior official from the Sharjah Civil Defence quoted in the Khaleej Times indicate the initial investigation showed that the fire started as a result of an electrical short circuit in an apartment on the eighth floor.

Evacuated families have reportedly been housed in Sharjah hotels until an investigation into the fire is fully completed and the insurance company finalises its report.

Saeed Awad, the owner of the building, told the local daily newspaper, Khaleej Times : “We have provided all the affected tenants with hotel accommodation. This building was recently constructed and is properly insured. I am surprised as to how quickly the fire spread throughout the building.”

The fire was put out within one hour of it starting through a joint effort of ten teams made up of firefighters from the Sharjah Civil Defence and their Dubai counterparts. A helicopter was also called to help douse the flames and assist with the evacuation effort.

The fire was the latest in a spate of blazes that has affected UAE residences recently.

“When you extract the air, because you’re pressurising the above and below floors, you’re not allowing smoke or the fire to spread, you contain the fire to within one level.”

While this could be considered overkill in other parts of the world, Stewart says that this considered approach was indicative of how serious the UAE is taking fire protection. He added that it highlighted how important a purpose the new code served, as it provided a clear path for fire engineers to take.

Lee Andrews, director of Business and Engineering at Blue Diamond Emirates Insulation Contracting, agrees with the sen-timent expressed by Stewart.

“The code is a fully in-depth archived piece of literature that has a combination of relevant legislation and international standards. [In addition], this code has its own unprecedented standards,” he says.

“The main point is that all the information is collaborated to-gether, making this the source to revert to for understanding and reference of current codes international standards,” An-drews adds.

However, he warns that the introduction of the code means that local fire engineering contractors and consultants will have to step up their game to ensure that they’re up to speed with the new regulations.

“Many of the fire professionals, including main contractors, will have to have through ongoing training for the purpose of fully understanding and implementing fire stop systems under the new building codes of practice.

“Compliance is the key and the understanding of these items for installation and methodology will have to be revamped,” adds Andrews.

Terming it a ‘constant battle’, Andrews says that organisations and fire professionals need to undergo constant rigorous train-ing and keep abreast of all the changes in the industry.

“We attend seminars around the world with internationally ac-credited associations all so that we can be fully coherent with such codes. I believe other firms will have to follow the same steps as this will be compulsory to comply with the standards set (by the UAE government),” he adds.

As a whole, experts have found that the new codes are largely in line with existing international standards, but there remains a need to modify them to fit to local environmental conditions.

“These new codes comprise of existing standards and comply with both ‘new builds’ and local legislations. The important bit is to recognise the existing international standards as well [i.e.: UL, British Standards, ASTM (American specifications) and EN (European Standards)] and filter the differentials. This new code does that quite well,” Andrews says.

While the code is currently where it needs to be, he and Stew-art both point out that when it comes to pre-existing buildings,

there will be some issues implementing the new standards.

“There is a huge focus on fire-safety now-adays and there’s always going to be revi-sions of tried and tested methods through-out the industry.”

“[However], with constant evaluation and revision, we can purposely improve the standard and well-being of fire safety solu-tions,”

“My only concerns personally, centre on pre-existing builds where we need to tackle [the problems] with the same means,” An-drews adds.

However, he expressed optimism that the introduction of standardisation would help create awareness throughout the industry and would, in the long term, prove to be the catalyst for increased standardisation throughout the MEP world.

“As long as we know about the poten-tial problems, we can do something about them. Especially in the MEP sector, where we work with big names and are aware that it can be a difficult situation to find solu-tions (late on in a project),” he says.

“Hence we welcome the introduction of standardisation as a main source to revert to with clients and consultants who are also aware of the same codes,” he concludes hope-fully, optimistic about what the development of this code could mean for the industry.

CONSIDERED APPROACHGraeme Stewart says that the UAE is showing that it is taking a considered approach towards fire safety.

The code is a fully in-depth archived piece of literature that has a combination of relevant legislation and international standards. [In addition], this code has its own unprecedented standards“ Lee Andrews


SITE VISIT


SITE VISIT

MEP Middle East is taken on a tour of the Rixos Palm Jumeirah as it gears up for its January 1, 2012 opening.

Gavin Davids reports

TurkishDELIGHT

22 MEP Middle East | January 2012


SITE VISIT


SITE VISIT

he Palm Jumeirah is an archi-tectural wonder, and fittingly, it is home to many iconic luxury hotels. From the Atlantis Palm that dominates its skyline, to the Fairmont Palm Hotel and the Taj Exotica Hotel and Resort, it is covered with high-quality, high-

cost playgrounds for the rich and famous.Tucked away at the very end of the Palm’s

crescent however, is a hotel that is set to take on these giants of the hospitality world. Part of the Turkish luxury hotel group, the Rixos Palm Jumeirah is a 234 room five star proper-ty that is home to a traditional Turkish ‘ham-mam’ or bath, a luxury spa, four restaurants, meeting rooms and a private beach.

The launch of this hotel is a statement of intent for the Turkish hospitality group, who intend to use it as a platform to break into the UAE market and then into the wider GCC re-gion as a whole.

The mechanical, electrical and plumbing work for this luxurious Rixos Palm Jumeirah is being carried out by the Turkish MEP gi-ant, AE Arma-Elektropanç.

After the sup, just over six months ago, the contractor was given the near impossible task of completing the project by January 1, 2012, in line with the main contractor, Sembol Con-struction Company’s scheduled completion date.

However, Burak Kizilhan, the business de-velopment manager for the contractor, says that despite the extremely short time frame, his team pulled together and managed to get the job done on time, with about 98% of the MEP work completed by December.

T


“I keep dropping emails saying I’m going to get it open for January 1 and I’m confident that we’re going to do so,” he asserts. “All our projects have always made deadline and we’ll make deadline for this one as well,” adds Kizilhan bullishly.

“We are confident of doing so; we’re work-ing so hard, seven days a week, with all the materials on site and around 800 labourers.”

Normally for a project of this size, no more than 250 to 300 labourers would be required to complete it, provided the time-frame given would accommodate the work that needed to be done, says Mokhles Islam, a mechanical coordinator for AE Arma-Elektropanç , and a supervisor on the project.

That was not an option for this project, Kizilhan says, as AE Arma-Elektropanç was brought in at a very advanced stage of devel-opment to complete the project.

“Usually you can handle this kind of pro-ject with 300 to 250 skilled people and manual labour, but we were in a situation where we assigned around 800 people (to get the job done). This included the required supervi-sion teams and so on, but we managed to increase our productivity to three times the normal amount,” Islam explains.

Size of the workforce needed to finish the project on deadline

800

The five star luxury hotel and resort is scheduled to open on January 1, 2012, a six month deadline for the contractor.


SITE VISITSITE VISIT

Finally, they were also required to install a building management system that would help regulate and control all the equipment, both on a project-wide scale and on an indi-vidual scale in each hotel room. There are 14 of these control stations installed in 14 differ-ent locations across the entire project site, ac-cording to the project specifications.

While Islam says that one of the biggest challenges the team faced on the project was meeting the deadline, it had also faced diffi-culties in installing the correct equipment at the site.

Because the hotel was surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Gulf, the risk of corrosion was higher than would normally be the case. This meant that MEP materials that had to be installed, especially electrical cables and the like, had to measure up to ma-rine standards before it could be used.

Although the situation wasn’t ideal, Kizil-han says that the MEP contractor’s specialist experience in working on luxury hotels, high-end shopping malls and high-rise accommo-dation came in handy for the project.

“All the projects we have completed are five star and we’ve even done one seven star one in Turkey. (Luxury hotels) and high-rise buildings are our hallmarks.”

The project footprint, which neighbours Sheikh Mohammad Al Maktoum’s Palace and Sofouh Road, has an indoor area cover-ing only 30% of the total available land. The remaining 70% is dedicated towards gardens and a beach promenade area.

As MEP contractors for the project, AE Arma-Elektropanç was responsible for the supply and installation of a number of facets for the project. In terms of mechanical work, the company had to install heating and cool-

All our projects have always made deadline and we’ll make deadline for this one as well.“ Burak Kizilhan

ing systems and fire fighting systems, along with ventilation and plumbing system work.

For electrical, AE Arma-Elektropanç was required to install a medium voltage system and a set of transformers.

In addition, they had to install generators that could handle a variety of functions such as a low voltage distribution system, lighting, small power, weak current systems such as public address and fire alarm systems.

There are eight 1,200kW low voltage panels at the Palm Rixos Jumeirah, bringing the total power up to 9212kW, says Mokhles Islam, mechanical coordinator for the project.

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A further complication came from the fact that the hotel operator had to be involved in the final stages of installation as the pro-ject needed to measure up to the operator’s luxury standards.

“We have to consider all these require-ments, the project itself and the hotel opera-tor’s requirements. In addition, we also have to follow DEWA regulations as well,” he adds.

What stood the company in good stead, Kizilhan says, is that it was able to draw upon its experience working on other Palm Jumei-rah projects, such as the Shoreline Apart-ments, when it came to installing and choos-ing the right equipment for the site.

Finally, when it comes to installing the cor-rect safety devices, Islam says that a lot of thought and consideration went into making sure the right equipment was put into place for the hotel, as they couldn’t be too careful with what they were doing.

“For fire handling, we have a fire alarm system, a fire fighting system and a smoke management system also. For the fire alarm systems, we have three main panels for the building and we have detectors in each room, bathroom and even inside the walls and corri-dors. In addition to that, we have a voice evacu-ation speaker system that directly comes from the building’s control centre,” he explains.

“In case of a fire, if a sprinkler gets used, if there’s an actual fire, a signal is given to the fire alarm system. In the same way, if a detec-tor sets off an alarm, all the emergency doors will be opened automatically, providing imme-diate evacuation routes for hotel guests.”

All the affected floors will get an evacuation message, followed by the floors above and below them getting a warning a minute later. If the fire persists, within five minutes, the whole building can be evacuated, Islam says.

In addition, a smoke management system has been installed which has dedicated fire ducts extracting the smoke from rooms and corridors to allow residents to exit the build-ing quickly and safely, he adds.

All in all, Kizilhan says, despite the chal-lenges and the short delivery time frame, he is proud of the success AE Arma-Elektropanç has made of the project, delivering it on time and under budget to a satisfied client.

STATISTICS FOR THE RIXOS PALM JUMEIRAH

“It’s about doing the installation according to the operators themselves. Since it’s a five star hotel, the operator has to be involved in the last stage of the installation, the finishing and some design changes and so on,” Islam says.

For a project of this size, Kizilhan says that normally a workforce of around 250 to 300 is needed, they had 800.

Since it’s a five star hotel, the operator has to be involved in the last stage of the installation, the finishing and some design changes and so on.“

SITE VISIT

MEP MIDDLE EAST AWARDS 2011

www.hyderconsulting.com

Alastair Mitchell, Principal Mechanical Engineer, Hyder Consulting

Congratulations to Tony Myrie for winning Project Manager of

the Year and Alastair Mitchell for GCC Engineer of the Year at

the MEP Middle East Awards 2011.

Tony Myrie, Head of Mechanical Engineering, Hyder Consulting

SON

THE BIG INTERVIEW


MEP Middle East talks to Burak Kizilhan, business development manager of AE Arma-Elektropanç, the Turkish MEP contractor with big ambitions for the GCC and Levant region. Gavin Davids reports

Rising


Over the last two decades Dubai has capitalised on the yearlong sunshine and pleasant winter weather that is prevalent throughout the Gulf region to promote itself as a tourism destination to the Western world, garner-ing rave reviews for its beach-

es, shopping and luxury living. As the influx of tourists grew, the other

members of the GCC cottoned on to the oppor-tunities that the emirate recognised years ago. Slowly but steadily, the likes of Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Abu Dhabi and even Saudi Arabia re-alised that while it was all well and good to capitalise on the oil reserves they possessed, the need to establish an alternative source of economic income was vital.

Thus we’ve seen an exponential growth in leisure and luxury holiday attractions through-out the region, attracting more and more tour-ists from all over the world.

However, with the rise in holiday travellers comes the obvious and necessary need to build accommodation to house them in com-fort and even extravagant luxury. As a result, we’ve seen the mushrooming growth of hotels all over the Gulf.

Ranging from small bed and breakfast op-erations to sprawling seven star resorts that embrace decadence and luxury, the hospital-ity industry has become one of the most viable sources of income for the Arabian Peninsula.

But as work on building these holiday nir-vanas continues apace, the need for MEP sys-tems that measure up to the highest standards across the world becomes vital. After all, who wants a holiday that’s ruined by fluctuating plumbing and inconsistent building services?

This is where a company like AE Arma-Ele-ktropanç comes into its own. Founded in 2001 after a merger between Arma Engineering and Elektropanç Electrical Industry and Trade Corporation, the Turkish owned company has grown to become one of the largest MEP con-tractors in the region.

It has overseen the installation of MEP works in projects spread across three conti-nents: Europe, Asia and Africa. With around 24 projects spread across various countries, the contractor has worked on a vast array of projects, but has been especially active in the GCC region.

the size of AE Arma-Elektropanç’s global MEP market

$4bn

It entered the UAE in 2004 with its first pro-ject, the Shoreline residential apartments on the famous Palm Jumeirah. Since then it has worked on projects such as the electrical and electronical system installation at the Gold and Silver Towers for Dubai Metal and Commodi-ties Centre at Jumeirah Lakes Tower district.

Looking further afield, the contractor re-cently completed the MEP works for what was at the time, Europe’s tallest building: the Capi-tal City mixed-use development in Moscow.

Capitalising on the success of this project and the experience they gained from it, the Arma-Elektropanç team bid for and won the contract for the Mercury City Towers, a high-rise project that will stand at 380m, making it the tallest building in Europe.

However, despite this success working on high-rise towers, Burak Kizilhan, the business development manager for the company, said that he felt that the company’s future lay in being a specialist MEP contractor for hotels, shopping malls and luxury residences.

Kizilhan is the man entrusted with the task of developing and building the contractor’s presence in the region. The Turkish born, British educated electrical and electronics engineer, is the son of the president of the company and has helped oversee and develop MEP projects such as the Bab Al Qasr Hotel

and Apartments in Abu Dhabi and the just completed Rixos Palm Jumeirah.

Speaking on the grounds of the latter site, he lays out his company’s plans for the com-ing year and explains how he intends plot its strengthening presence in the region.

“We have a lot of projects going on in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, at the moment we have 24 ongoing projects across three continents. (Out of those), we’ve got five projects ongoing in the UAE, so you can say that the UAE makes up about 25% of our overall business,” he says.

“For the last three months, we’ve prepared $4bn worth of tenders and we’re waiting to get a decision (from the clients). We’re looking at winning around 8% to 10% of that for next year. That’s equivalent to around $272m.”

Kizilhan adds that with Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s construction market booming, he expects to see AE Arma-Elektropanç pushing strongly into these markets.

“We already have an office in Qatar, but for Saudi Arabia, we’re looking at opening next year, maybe in the third or fourth quarter.”

“Right now we’re looking for country man-agers and at the senior management level. Our company procedure is that we hire the country manager first, and he’s responsible for every-thing under AE,” he says as he lays out a clear strategy for his company’s success.

With Lebanon, it’s quite a difficult market. We’ve done a 50-50 partnership with a well known Lebanese family, you may know them, the Hariri family, through their company, Radiant Contracting.“

THE BIG INTERVIEW

The sprawling City of Capitals project in Moscow helped put AE Arma-Elektropanc gain recognition in Europe.

THE BIG INTERVIEW


THE BIG INTERVIEW

“Everything is ready, all the partners are ready, but it’s a difficult market and we have to be strong to enter it,” Kizilhan explains.

However, what holds them back from pro-gressing in the Kingdom is a combination of events, he feels.

“First of all, its manpower, that’s the most difficult part for us. We’ve been looking for a country manager for the last four or five months, but nobody is willing to go there. Ac-tually, it’s not so bad once you go there, (but combating the perception is hard).”

“The second thing is that there are only two or three companies that distribute projects, which makes things difficult for even the main contractors. None of our other markets are like this, and if you consider us as sub-contrac-tors, it’s going to get even more difficult.”

“But we have to enter this market, there are a lot of jobs there and we have to get into it,” he asserts.

What is likely to stand the company in good stead as they attempt to conquer the King-dom is its flexibility when it comes to starting up a new operation in a different country.

Drawing upon the experience garnered from its work around the world, Arma-Elek-tropanç’s adapts its business strategy to suit its market. When they entered Dubai, Kizil-han says that they went with a local partner, similar to their entry into Qatar. However when it came to starting operations in Mos-cow, they were more than comfortable begin-ning from scratch.

While Saudi Arabia remains a target, the immediate focus for Kizilhan is the new AE operation he’s overseeing in Beirut, Lebanon.

“With Lebanon, it’s quite a difficult mar-ket. We’ve done a 50-50 partnership with a well known Lebanese family, you may know them, the Hariri family, through their com-pany, Radiant Contracting. We made a joint venture between them and our headquarters, AE Turkey.”

Although the Mediterranean country isn’t normally one that springs to mind when one thinks of a booming MEP market, Kizilhan is adamant that it has huge potential. As a re-sult, he is determined to steal a march on his rivals and set up shop there before the rest of the competition arrives.

value of the contract wins the Turkish contractor hopes to pick up in the UAE

during 2012

$272m

The massive Bab Al Qasr development was AE Arma-Elektropanc’s official entry for the 2011 MEP Middle East awards.

Bab Al Qasr development sees Turkish firm feted for its MEP work

AE Arma-Elektropanç, the Turkish MEP contractor, was short-listed for the Overall GCC Project of the Year at the 2011 MEP Middle East Awards. The contractor submitted the Bab Al Qasr mixed use development as its nomination for the prestigious award.

The massive twin tower project covers an area of 16.8ha and its structure contains four base-ment levels and 32 additional floors, with the towers joined by a four storey bridge. The first tower will contain a five star hotel that contains 408 rooms and leisure amenities.

The second tower will contain apartments and a retail plaza with its own leisure equivalents. The podium under the towers will hold a number of shops and food outlets.

AE Arma-Elektropanç will be handling MEP operations and installations on site, with the con-tractor looking to complete the whole project by the end of next year.

“We will supply and install all MEP elements to the buildings,” said Burak Kizilhan.“This includes medium voltage systems, transformers, generators, low voltage distribution

systems, weak current systems and lighting. On the mechanical side there is all the heating and cooling, firefighting equipment, plumbing and building management systems,” he added.

According to estimates, the entire MEP project will be worth around $54.45m, Kizilhan said.In addition, the company will work on the buildings HVAC system, including all ventilation,

plumbing and sanitation systems. Storm rainwater systems will also be installed, while fire and life safety systems and equipment

will be taken care of by the Turkish contractor.Other areas covered will be the filtration and chemical dosing systems and an LPG supply

system that will run to all related areas and commercial kitchens.Kizilhan added that the contractor had been on-site at the Bab Al Qasr for as long as Nurol, the

main contractor for the project, had been involved. The main contractor was mobilised in October 2010, when it completed the shoring work on the

site in preparation for the main construction work.“For us, the MEP contractor should always work day to day together with the contractor,” he

said, in explanation as to why they decided to take part in the project at such an early stage.At present, most of the long lead major MEP equipment has been procured and received at site,

though he added that the remaining balance of equipment would be in place by the end of 2011.

AE ARMA ELEKTROPANÇ SHORTLISTS FOR PROJECT OF YEAR


The Rixos Palm Jumeirah continues the trend for the MEP contractor as it looks to focus on high-end luxury hotels and shopping malls.

We have a lot of projects going on in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, at the moment we have 24 ongoing projects across three continents. (Out of that), we’ve got five projects ongoing in the UAE, so you can say that the UAE makes up about 25% of our overall business.“

THE BIG INTERVIEW

While he harbours hopes for success in Lebanon, he also sees 2012 as a year of op-portunity in the Middle East.

“For the next 12 months, I hope to see Qa-tar boom after the first six months, after June or July. Abu Dhabi is also doing well, with a lot of projects pending which are finally go-ing to be decided. There are a couple of pro-jects that we’ve been short-listed for, so we see next year as being good for MEP and for the construction industry as a whole.”

With the Bab Al Qasr project in Abu Dhabi scheduled to be handed over by the third quarter of 2012 and more than 856 villas set to be delivered in Dubai at around the same time, Kizilhan certainly has enough to keep him occupied for the year.

However, he hopes to add a true mega-pro-ject to the mix by the end of next year, with a joint venture tender between AE Arma-Ele-ktropanç, Al Habtoor Specon, Spain’s Cobra (part of the ACS Group) and Mapco aiming to snare a $1bn MEP contract for the Mid-field Terminal Building in Abu Dhabi airport.

Although reluctant to discuss it, Kizilhan did confirm that the tender would see the joint venture supply and install standby gen-erators, low-voltage distribution, small power and lighting electrical systems, medium volt-age power distribution systems, earthing and bonding systems, lightening protection systems, fire alarm and suppression systems and finally an HVAC plant and other related systems, amongst others.

So with all that lined up, it’s no wonder that he’s feeling optimistic about the future, de-spite the conditions in Europe.

“I should think positively for next year,” Kizilhan says, “Hopefully Qatar will boom and we’ll get a lot projects in Qatar, UAE and Lebanon as well, so hopefully Europe won’t be a problem like it was in 2011,” he con-cludes, true to his word, optimistically.

“If you go to Beirut you’ll see that there’s a lot of construction going on, and all of it is for A+ type buildings. MEP work for them is around 25% to 30% of construction, so there are a lot of jobs for us while there are not a lot of competitors like there are in other mar-kets,” he explains, betraying a sense of excite-ment at the opportunity ahead.

By using the connections that the Hariri family offers, Kizilhan says that there’s a good opportunity for the contractor to expand throughout the Levant region, with Jordan

and Syria in his sights, though he concedes that it may take a while given the current po-litical situation there.

“There were a lot of projects in the Levant area, but now everything has stopped. We were so close (to winning) some projects in Syria, but for now we don’t have any projects there,” he adds.

However, the narrow miss because of the Arab Spring is not enough to dissuade him about his plans for the future of what could be his company one day.

MEP AWARDS 2011


The latest edition of the MEP Middle East Awards was held on December 14, 2011 at The Address in Dubai Marina.

The MEP Middle East awards are a celebration of the achievements of the industry over the last year and is meant

Rounding up the winners of another stellar year in the MEP industry

to acknowledge those professionals who made them possible.

More than 250 guests turned out to see dozens of MEP contractors, consultants and suppliers take part in the awards ceremony.The judging process consisted of four ex-perts voting independently of each other. Their recommendations were then collated

to fi nd an ultimate winner for each of the 12 categories being judged.

The judges were: George Bebari, CEO of DC Pro Engineering, Thomas Orr, manag-ing director of Trox Middle East, Murali Ser-pakkam, general manager of MEP, Al Fut-taim Engineering and Stelios Thrasyvoulou, fi nance director of Al Habtoor Specon.

MEP AWARDS2011 Winners


MEP AWARDS 2011

OVERALL GCC PROJECT OF THE YEARSHORTLISTAl Muneera City by Drake and ScullBab Al Qasr Hotel and Residential Apartments by AE Arma-ElektropançDoha International Airport by Arabian MEP ContractingEtihad Towers by Voltas State Guest Reception Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport by RED EngineeringWINNEREtihad Towers by Voltas

The $149m Etihad Towers project was inaugurated on December 4, 2011. The twin tower mixed used development is built opposite the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, on an area of over a half a million square metres.

The brief was to provide high quality MEP services that would measure up to the luxurious standards set out by the developer. With a fi ve star hotel and a series

of luxurious residential apartments to provide for, this meant that Voltas had to incorporate HVAC systems, car park ventilation, high-voltage networks, building management systems, closed circuit TV, water supply and sewage drainage, all as unobtrusively as possible.

Given the massive size of the project, Voltas introduced sustainable measures to help cut down costs on the project. For instance, approximately $8.6m was shaved off the total contract by Voltas convincing the client not to install a dedicated chiller on site.

In addition, by installing systems that utilised natural gas for heating water, utility costs were reduced by 33%. Energy management systems were also installed to help intelligently control the air cooling in fl oors by monitoring occupancy in the area.

MEP CONTRACTOR OF THE YEARSHORTLISTALECArabian MEP ContractingAl Sabbah Electro-Mechanical ContractingDrake & ScullETAMercuryVoltasWINNERVoltas

A part of the $90bn TATA Group, Voltas Limited has over 50 years of experience in the MEP industry, with around three decades in the UAE alone. Since its inception, it has operated in regions as diverse as India, the GCC and Singapore.

The company has gained a solid reputation as one that will follow all due processes on a project, exhibiting a thoroughness on issues that other contractors may regard

as being unimportant.“Voltas demonstrated an impressive list of projects and a consistent quality approach to

them,” the judges say, when asked why they nominated the Indian contractor for the top prize.They added that by maintaining such high standards, Voltas was, by extension, pushing the

industry forwards.With key projects in hand, Voltas seems set to continue the pattern of growth that has seen

it expand throughout the region over the last 10 years.

Quality control was very strict, the designs and specifi cations were ranging from the US to Australia, so you’re combining all these continents’ requirements, the best of all the continents.“

- A R Sureshkumar, project director for Etihad Towers

n u

toes te

ms,

ut act

sts ntly

ns A R Sureshkumar

(l) and Gopal Sharma, senior

manager, with the award.

Shaukat Ali Mir, CEO of Voltas with the award.

MEP AWARDS 2011


SHORTLIST Al Shirawi US ChillersArabian MEP ContractingMercury Middle EastRental Solutions and ServicesViessmann Middle EastWINNERMercury Middle East

Established in 2004 as a subsidiary to Ireland’s Mercury Engineering, the Middle East-ern branch of the international MEP contractor has made steady progress to become a major player in the regional MEP market.

Over the last 12 months, the company has delivered a number of major projects to its clients in Qatar and the rest of the GCC. One of its most prominent recent projects is

the Doha Showcase Stadium, which was instrumental in Qatar winning its bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The contractor recently signed on to work on a project with Brookefi eld Multiplex in Doha.

MEP CONSULTANT OF THE YEARSHORTLISTAtkinsBuro HappoldCKR ConsultingDC Pro EngineeringHyder ConsultingKEO International ConsultantsRED EngineeringWINNERAtkins

Over the course of 2012 Atkins has secured and begun delivered delivery on some of the most challenging, time-critical and high-profi le projects in the GCC.

These include a range of transportation infrastructure projects such as the 1,200km Etihad Rail project and the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. In addi-tion, it has expanded its multidisciplinary design expertise to countries such as India,

Azerbaijan, Russia and Angola.

GCC ENGINEER OF THE YEARSHORTLISTAlistair Mitchell from Hyder ConsultingBill Jolly from KEO International ConsultingDavid Crowder from AtkinsIain MacDougall from RED EngineeringDr Robert Cooke from Buro HappoldMahmoud Hassan Mehany from Molden Technical and Consulting ProjectsSayed Rohin from KEO International ConsultantsWINNERAlistair Mitchell from Hyder Consulting

Alistair Mitchell has been involved in the MEP industry for more than 22 years, work-ing on both building services design and installation supervision and management. Over the last two decades, he has strived to impart his knowledge to the engineers and site staff he has worked with and has been instrumental in developing’s Hyder’s brand across the Middle East. He has delivered numerous major projects, including

the Burj Khalifa, the Tashkent International Airport and Heathrow Terminal 5 in London.

of

mi-a,

-e

ts s 2

TTHHE YEAR

Eamon Sweetman

claims the Specialist

MEP Contractor of the Year award.

Alistair Mitchell

nabs the award for

Engineer of the Year.

Atkins’s work on

transportation infrastructure

won it

Consultancy of the Year.

SPECIALIST MEP CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

MEP AWARDS 2011


SHORTLISTCKR ConsultingDC Pro EngineeringRED EngineeringWINNERCKR Consulting

Ever since it opened its doors in Dubai 10 years ago, CKR Consulting has focused on forging long-term relationships with its clients, not matter how large or small they are.

This approach has seen it snap up luxury resorts such as the Madinat Jumeirah Resort, the One and Only on the Palm and the St Regis on Saadiyat Island, to various retail showrooms in Dubai, Kuwait and Muscat.

The South African owned consultancy has been in operation for more than 30 years and of-fers the full gamut of MEP services, right from concept to completion.

Next up in 2012, the consultancy hopes to win a bid to supply high end security over IP and triple play (Voice, Data and TV) over an IP system for a large ‘integrated’ township. CKR is cur-rently presenting a proposal for the project.

PROJECT MANAGER OF THE YEARSHORTLISTDean Pillay of CKR ConsultingTippu Sultan of ALECTony Myrie of Hyder ConsultingWINNERTony Myrie

As a 33 year veteran of the MEP industry, Tony Myrie has demonstrated the skills and qualities necessary for a Project Manager to succeed in a high pressure envi-ronment such as the GCC.

As the MEP Project Manager for Education City in Qatar, he is required to interact on a daily basis with different project manager, discipline engineers and

signature architects across 13 individual packages. This provides a showcase for his leadership and organisational skills, as well as his ability

to infl uence multiple teams to deliver MEP on time for this massive project.Despite having grown up in poverty in Jamica, Myrie dedicated himself to academic suc-

cess and worked for the Government of Jamaica before joining Hyder.

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT OF THE YEARSHORTLISTCo-generation systems for the Ajman Hotel Project by Jain Sustainable Engineering Solu-tionsNine ADEC Sustainable Schools by KEO International ConsultantsFujairah Mixed Used Development by RED EngineeringWINNER:Nine ADEC Sustainable Schools by KEO International Consultants

A passionate advocate for sustainability in the Middle East’s MEP industry, Bill Jolly was the man behind this massive undertaking by KEO International Consultants.

Recipient of the coveted three Pearls rating by Estidama, the project successfully saved as much as 2.4m kgs of CO2 per year across the nine schools.

Working to a tight budget, KEO successfully delivered the project design on time with high quality and construction activities at the various sites are now progressing well, Jolly says.

Set to be advertised globally as a fl agship project for the Abu Dhabi Education Council, the project is set to benefi t both ADEC and the external environment.

SPECIALIST MEP CONSULTANT OF THE YEAR

y

y

e y

e

n .

h s

f-

dr-

R OOFF THE YEAR

CKR’s work on luxury resorts

helped win it the award.

KEO’s work to promote

sustainability won it the

judge’s acclaim.

Tony Myrie is MEP’s Project

Manager of the Year.

ILITY PROJE


MEP AWARDS 2011

INNOVATIONOF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTCombined Diffuser by Aldes Middle EastAl Bustan Complex by DC Pro EngineeringBioclimatic Design for Hotels by REDEngineeringTemporary District Cooling Plants by Rental Solutions and ServicesHIGHLY COMMENDEDCombined Diffuser by Aldes Middle EastWINNERBioclimatic Design for Hotels by REDEngineering

SHORTLISTDrake and Scull InternationalETAMercury Middle EastHIGHLY COMMENDEDMercury Middle EastWINNERDrake and Scull International

SUPPLIEROF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTAldes Middle EastAl Otaishan Group for SafetyFaisal JassimLeminar Air Conditioning CompanyRadiant EngineeringRental Solutions and ServicesViessmann Middle EastHIGHLY COMMENDEDLeminar Air Conditioning CompanyWINNERViessmann Middle East

YOUNG ENGINEER OF THE YEARSHORTLISTCharl Burger of CKR ConsultingMichael Slessor of Buro HappoldRaied Bitar of KEO International ConsultingRay Choi of RED EngineeringRoss McDonald of RED EngineeringWINNERMichael Slessor of Buro Happold

Since coming to Dubai two and a half years ago, Michael Slessor has quietly begun to carve out a niche for himself in the MEP industry. The product of a University of Cam-bridge education, the 25 year old has crammed in an impressive amount of experience in such a short career.

He has worked on a number of signifi cant projects, including media zones, airport terminals, laboratories and master plans. However, arguably his most signifi cant body of work has come in developing the Estidama Pearl Rating System for the Abu Dhabi government.

HEALTHAND SAFETYINITIATIVEOF THE YEAR

o m-

e

rt k

SUPPLIER INNOVATION HEALTH

Michael Slessor’s work with

the Abu Dhabi government and

Estidama won him the award.

R Praveen Kumar holds the

Supplier of the Year award. Mick Cairns holds the award for

Innovation of the Year.Wael Salah Mostafa

with the HSI award.

MEP AWARDS 2011

38 MEP Middle East | January 2012 www.constructionweekonline.comwww.constructionweekonline.com38 MEP Middle East | Januar

in the Middle East

Taking Fire stopping to a new level

Blue Diamond Group of companies

GCC & Middle East

Po Box 25468 Dubai United Arab Emirates Tel +971 4 340 3700 Fax: +971 4 340 5122

Email: [email protected] Qatar Tel :+974 44 127093 Fax: +974 44 178210

2012 PREVIEW


Given that 2011 ended on some-thing of a high note for the MEP industry with nascent signs of growing cropping up throughout the region, it seems only fair that we should look ahead to 2012 with some optimism and a sense that better things lie ahead of us.

With that in mind, MEP Middle East spoke to three of the biggest names in the industry: Khaldoun Tabari from Drake and Scull In-ternational, David Crowder from

2012: THE YEAR OF COMPETITIONMEP Middle East talks to three of the foremost MEP experts in the region about expectations in the industry and how the lessons from 2011 can help growth in the coming year

Drake and Scull: A regional MEP giant that has delivered high quality MEP engineering to since the 1960’s.

Atkins Middle East and India: Regional subsidary of the engineering giant, it has been in operation since 1979.

Ramboll Middle East: The regional arm of the Dutch engineering and consultancy company with more than 10,000 experts worldwide.

Khaldoun Tabari Vice chairman and CEO, Drake and Scull International

David Crowder MEP head of department, Atkins Middle East and India

Adrian Palmer Executive director, Ramboll Middle East

Atkins Middle East and Adrian Palmer from Ramboll Middle East.

All three gave us their expec-tations for the industry over the coming year and highlighted the sectors of the industry that they felt would offer the best promise for growth.

As a whole, 2011 seems to have been a largely positive year for the MEP industry. Did it live up to your expectations?

Khaldoun Tabari: 2011 was a challenging year for the regional construction industry. We had to contend with changing macro-eco-nomics, shifting political winds and fierce competition.

However, we are satisfied with our solid performance across all our subsidiaries for the first nine months of the year despite a chal-lenging macro-environment.

The first nine months showed revenues of $607.13m, a solid in-crease from the total revenues of the fiscal year, 2010, which re-ceived $503.67m.

These results reflected our operating capability, portfolio strength and financial flexibility.

Our initial target was to achieve a 25% top line growth for 2011 and we’re delighted to have exceeded our expectations.

MEET OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS

- DSI expects to post $81.6m revenues by 2011 year end- Plans to grow business by 20% to 25% over coming year

- Atkins made $123.28m in revenue for the six months to September- Staff figures up by 8.1% since 2010

- Ramboll posted gross revenue of $616m in H1 of 2011 for entire group- Currently has over 1,000 employees in UK and MidEast


2012 PREVIEW

David Crowder: 2011 has ex-ceeded our expectations. In the transportation sector, we were awarded some major projects, in-cluding the MEP design for Jed-dah Airport and Etihad Rail. This has allowed us to maintain staffing levels despite the tough economic climate.

The market was extremely competitive, but our performance figures have been good thanks to our success in securing such a di-versity of work across the region.

Adrian Palmer: Yes, it did live up to our expectations, in that it was very challenging! We had a disappointing first half of the year, but from the second half onwards, there has been a significant im-provement.

What lessons did you take from the year just past? How will it influence your business strategy in 2012?Khaldoun Tabari: The most important lesson to learn was that the vulnerability of businesses to unforeseen events has never been more evident. Our businesses must therefore learn to swiftly adapt and devise more ways to move forward.

Uncertainty is becoming a pre-dominant trend in the life-cycle of a business. Therefore risk man-agement has become crucial to

the survival of companies, espe-cially in the construction industry, where the required operating capi-tal needed to maintain a business is quite substantial.

The most effective way to con-trol external risk, as we at Drake and Scull have tried to implement, is to diversify through countries and product offerings which help to mitigate exposure.

We have realised that one of the key solutions is the need to remain responsive to local markets, while at the same time achieving re-

gional efficiency through integrat-ing and coordinating operations across all markets and allowing for the transfer of knowledge from one operation to another.

In 2012, we will continue to do what we do best and diversification will remain pivotal to the continu-ity of our business as we proceed to implement our growth plans.

David Crowder: We’ve worked

hard to improve efficiency across the board. This includes our own efficiency as designers and also the efficiencies that we can offer our clients.

Our fully coordinated BIM de-signs save waste and re-work for contractors who are on site and en-able faster build rates with lower installed costs.

We see utilising this as the best way to achieve value for our clients while also maintaining the high standards that we have set in re-cent years.

Adrian Palmer: One of the most important lessons we’ve learnt over the course of the year is to continue to focus on getting the business basics right. As an MEP consultant, you have a few set tasks; you have to add value for your client; you have to help build resilience in the market and aim to expand geographically.

We have set growth targets for 2012, and we intend to achieve these targets through geographi-cal and market diversification.

We also aim to extend our geo-graphical and market diversifi-cation, while also extending our client base, which will be in con-junction with robust management of business risk.

With that in mind, what are your expectations for 2012, for both yourselves and the industry as a whole?Khaldoun Tabari: We look ahead to 2012 with cautious opti-mism in light of the world’s eco-nomic volatility. We see sustained growth in the region as govern-ment spending on infrastructure developments remains a strategic priority for them.

We are well poised to capital-ise on this. Based on our secured $1.82bn backlog, we expect that next year we will be growing by ap-proximately 20% to 25% compared to 2011 levels.

The transportation sector of the MEP industry will be a major market in 2012, Crowder says. Tabari says companies should look at 2012 with ‘cautious optimism’.

We expect the transportation market to remain strong in 2012. We see Saudi Arabia and Qatar as major growth markets for our design services, not only for next year, but well into the future “ David Crowder

2012 PREVIEW


However, optimising operating costs and efficiency as well as bal-ance sheet management remains on top of the list.

We expect the construction in-dustry’s real growth to accelerate over the coming year. On top of this, greater government spend-ing should continue into 2012 as the regional governments carry out their sizeable social and infra-structure development plans.

It’s difficult to estimate accurate numbers for particular growth in the MEP industry, but we defi-nitely see heightened activities in

this field as general construction activities across all sectors are ex-pected to pick up.

David Crowder: We expect the transportation market to re-main strong in 2012. We see Saudi Arabia and Qatar as major growth markets for our design services, not only for next year, but well into the future.

Rather than set targets, we’re taking a more balanced view for 2012. We already have an MEP team large enough to take on the biggest projects in the region.

This puts us in the position of having a strong, established and very talented team of more than 60 specialists. So while we may see growth, we already have a great deal of capability and will look to build on this in a measured and re-sponsible manner.

I think the prospects for the property sectors are stable, but for transport, they really are excellent.

Adrian Palmer: I think 2012

will be another challenging year with external risks. However, if these are managed successfully, the Middle East market has a num-ber of significant opportunities.

However, 2012 has the potential to be a very strong year as there seems to be a strong demand for refurbishing and fit out. Prospects are good, in my opinion.

What are the biggest chal-lenges you anticipate for the coming year? Khaldoun Tabari: Maintaining sustained levels of profitability is a key challenge for contractors in 2012. Competition is rendering lower profit margins and therefore our primary focus for the year is controlling costs and efficiently allocating resources to optimise our expense base, while ensuring growth in market share.

We believe that the investment made in 2011, all other things be-ing equal, will yield robust finan-cial results in 2012, as we continue to implement our own growth strategy plans.

David Crowder: I think re-cruiting the right calibre of staff will be a major issue for all MEP businesses because of the scale of activity across our core markets.

We’re fortunate in that respect because we already have a large and highly skilled team.

But we’re also investing heavily in developing and nurturing our young engineers because they rep-resent the future of the business.

Adrian Palmer: I think we’re going to see the continuation of a very competitive market place.

MEP companies will be fo-cused on maintaining their core strengths.

In regards to us, we’ll focus on continuing the development and embedding of BIM, maintaining and developing our strong client relationships and providing added value to them.

Another challenge we’ll also have to look seriously at will be to develop our operational flexibility and efficiency properly over the coming year.

The vulnerability of businesses to unforeseen events has never been more evident. Our businesses must therefore learn to swiftly adapt and devise more ways to move forward.“ Khaldoun Tabari

We’re going to see the continuation of a very competitive market place. MEP companies will be focused on maintaining their core strengths“ Adrian Palmer

Qatar will be one of two major markets for MEP companies over the coming year.

PRODUCTS


WANT TO FEATURE YOUR PRODUCT HERE? Email: [email protected]

BUYER’S GUIDE

New products come on to the market at a great rate. While many shout

about their innovation or competitive pricing, it can be diffi cult to spot the true merit of a product without the right information. MEP offers a few top tips that are always worth keeping in mind when purchase orders are on the way.

TOP TIPS

1. FOCUSKnow what you are looking for and exactly what you

need it to do

2. RESEARCH Get suppliers to provide

detailed product information based on your

specifi c requirements

3. PRICE VERSUS...Is price the most important

factor?

4. ...QUALITYOr will quality matter more

in the long run?

5. IS IT NEEDED?Is the product something the project really needs?

Could it be done without or bought at a later stage?

6. SUSTAINABILITYDoes this product need to

be ‘green’?

7. STANDARDSDoes the product need to conform to any specifi c

standards?

8. SHIPPING Will the product make it to site on time, or is there an

order backlog?

9. LIABILITYHow long will your

company be liable for the product’s performance?

10. SORTEDWill this purchasing

decision sort the job or will it come back to haunt you?

Product focusMEP Middle East reviews the latest gadgets, essential kit and serious product innovations making an impact in the GCC construction market. Let us know if there is something you would like to see on these pages.

TROX TECHNIK DESIGNER SWIRL DIFFUSERS – XARTO TROX TECHNIK is proud to launch the new designer swirl diffuser – XARTO. TROX have applied themselves to the task of combining function and design in an effective way. The XARTO diffuser faceplate has 10 confi guration variations which now provide interior design consultants and building owners with a large selection of refi ned designs so that every creative or architectural concept can be realised. Specifi c faceplate design requirements can also be engineered for a bespoke air diffusion solution.TROX have utilized three dimensionally profi led ABS plastic blades behind the steel faceplate to create an effi cient swirl, which in

JG SPEEDFIT PUSH FIT PLUMBING SYSTEM JG SPEEDFIT is a Push Fit System for all plumbing and heating systems. Simply pushing a pipe into a fi tting produces a permanent leak proof connection. The fi ttings can be disconnected and used again without the need for replacement parts. The low insertion easy to install. The installation is greatly enhanced by the clean, all white appearance of pipe and fi ttings. Speedfi t Fitting are suitable for both Copper, Pex and polybuthene pipes. The Speedfi t system has a 25 year guarantee.

R410A REFRIGERANT R410A REFRIGERANT is an environmentally friendly and highly effi cient refrigerant used for Direct Expansion Equipment. This introduction was no small feat as the introduction of an equipment range based on a new refrigerant is fraught with challenges including providing training to all staff, understanding the equipment, being able to commission it correctly and have the capability to maintain it.Leminair’s push for the R410A refrigerant has seen it gain acceptance in the Middle East market, despite the presence of the more established R22 refrigerant. So successful has the campaign been that the refrigerant is now regarded as one of the most effi cient and environmentally friendly refrigerants amongst end users.


PRODUCTS


7 QUESTIONS TO ASK

1. If my order quantities increase, will I receive a better

price?

2. When will the order be delivered

to site?

3. Has the product been used or tested

in the GCC?

4. What guarantees are in place for the

product?

5. What after-sales support is available?

6. Will we recieve any installation

advice or assistance?

7. Can the product be customised to suit our specifi c requirements?

TROX TECHNIK EASYLAB TCU3TROX TECHNIK has launched the latest version of its market leading LabControl System – the EasyLab TCU3. This fully integrated plug-and-play system has adaptable control methodologies for all laboratory applications. This system can be combined with TROX available air fl ow control and distribution products to deliver a complete LabControl system solution. The EasyLab system has been developed specifi cally to ensure ease of installation, commissioning, and monitoring, and can be supplied in modular format to ensure the client pays only for the components required for their specifi c solution. TROX Middle East has an operational demonstration unit available on request for presentations.

LUTRON RANGE OF WIRELESS ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT CONTROLS Lighting can account for the majority of a building’s total energy consumption. With many building spaces remaining unoccupied between 40% and 70% of the day, lights can become unnecessarily costly as well as increasing the carbon footprint of the business. Lutron wireless occupancy/vacancy sensors automate the switching and dimming of lights, saving energy, money and time.Radio Powr Savr (RPS) sensors by Lutron can be installed in as little as 15 minutes and communicate with compatible Lutron dimmers, switches and light control systems. Using Clear Connect™ Radio Frequency (RF) Technology for communication with wireless occupancy/vacancy sensors, daylight sensors, and wireless controllers ensures smooth and consistent performance.

KESSEL SEPARATORS KESSEL separators ensure that wastewater pipes from commercial buildings remain blockage free by removing greases and food sludge from wastewater streams. This upstream solution also critically reduces the load on the district water treatment plants. The extensive Kessel range has safe hygienic solutions for all users from small restaurants to major catering companies preparing up to 200,000 meals per day. Models can also range from basic manual operation to fully automated custom solutions.In addition to grease separators, Kessel also offers oil/fuel Coalescence Separators. These units provide essential separation where oil and fuel can enter the drainage system. Material of construction is polyethylene

TROX TECHNIK ABS SWIRL DIFFUSERS – AIRNAMICTROX TECHNIK has launched the new ABS swirl diffuser – AIRNAMIC.TROX AIRNAMIC swirl diffusers are the result of extensive development work with progressive materials and advanced production techniques.The use of the ABS plastic technology enables the development and the production of three-dimensionally profi led blades (with optimum swirl generation), thus enabling high volume fl ow rates and low sound power levels. Low air velocities and low temperature differences in the occupied zone provide excellent comfort levels even at these higher volume fl ow rates.TROX Middle East currently has the AIRNAMIC installed in their fl ow studio, and it can be demonstrated on request.

TAKE A LOOK

Aubin Academy Series: Revit MEP 2011

This is the ideal book to help readers successfully

use Revit MEP. It is a concise manual focused squarely on the rationale

and practicality of the Revit MEP process. It

emphasises the process of creating projects in MEP, rather than being a series of independent commands

and tools.

PRODUCTS


APEX MODULAR WIRING SYSTEMSApex has established itself as a supplier for electrical wiring products in the UK market, with over 50 PFI and ProCure21 schemes totalling over 2 million m2. Projects for the company include the Royal London Hospital and Bartholomew’s Hospital. Modular wiring systems are growing in popularity in the Middle East, with mechanical and electrical specifiers are now looking seriously at the benefits of the modular approach. Most modular electrical wiring systems work on a radial circuit as opposed to the ring main common to most installations. Fewer cable lengths are required and less copper is needed because the radial installation runs only one way.

RONIS INTERLOCK SYSTEMS The RONIS range of interlock systems are designed specifi cally to ensure the safety of users and materials during work on medium- and high-voltage machines and electrical installations. The range offers a number of locks that can be adapted to any hazardous component by requiring manipulation in a specifi c order and tailored to company’s specifi c needs. Designed for maximum safety, the RONIS product range includes locking isolator controls, access locks and locking systems for circuit-breaker switches, inverters and transformers. Each hazardous component is protected by one or more locks, each of which can only be opened with its own specifi c key.

MOBILE TECH

Mobile devices are becoming a ubiquitous tool in many industries.

MEP takes a look at some of the latest

mobile applications that may help to make an

engineer’s working life a little bit easier

7 TOP APPS

1. ENGINEERING CALC

This Agilent Technologies app is pitched at engineers and students who need a

reference tool for electrical and RF engineering.

2. CIVIL ENGINEERING FORMULATOR

Multieducator’s engineering app collects together 100 important formulas for engineers.

3. UNIT CONVERTER PRO

Concrete Software’s massive conversion tool

helps sort all those mixed measures.

4. AIR PRESSURE Gas Liquids Engineering

has created an app to calculate height above sea level based on air pressure

measures.

5. POWERONE SCIENTIFIC

CALCULATORPowerOne combines an algebraic and RPN

calculator with spreadsheet templates.

6. OHM’S LAW A quick and simple Ohm’s

Law calculator from Christopher Pfl epsen.

7. MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Another app from Multieducator that collects together more than 300 important mechanical engineering formulas.

CIMBERIO MONOLINK VALVE FOR FAN COIL UNIT The Monolink is a preassembled and factory tested valve for fan coil units. Marketed in this region by NAFFCO Flow Control, the Monolink acts as a strainer, by-pass valve, balancing valve and drain cock all-in-one. It requires no requirement of assembly at site. The valve reduces the number of connections from the traditional 22 joints to just six connections, making installation easier and faster. This results in cost saving and is ideal areas where there are space constraints. The Monolink also has a condensation proof casing which helps it avoid insulation problems, making servicing very easy. It has a fi ve year factory warranty.

CIMBERIO PRESSURE INDEPENDENT CONTROL VALVE The Pressure Independent Control Valve is an eco-friendly product from Cimberio that is marketed in the region by NAFFCO Flow Control. The valve is designed for the automatic balancing of heating and cooling systems, regardless of fl uctuating pressure conditions in the system. Due to its design, this valve is able to perform the important functions of regulation, control and modulation. Its manufacturer says it helps reduce costs and improve energy savings. In addition, its compact valve construction means it does not require inlet and outlet straight pipelines to stabilise the fl ow.


PRODUCTS


MADE IN CHINA

14.7%YOY INCREASE RATE FOR

MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC MACHINERY FROM JANUARY

TO NOVEMBER

11.6%YOY INCREASE RATE FOR

MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC MACHINERY

IN NOVEMBER

TYCO VALVES & CONTROLSTyco’s Sapag Monovar pressure control valve is pushing the boundaries of control valve design and engineering. With excellent cavitations characteristics which make it suitable for high pressure drop applications, the value is able to control a high pressure differential in relation to its inlet pressure. Very accurate flow and pressure regulation capabilities ensure the valve is well suited to industrial water applications in water distribution, hydro-power stations and process industries. Engineering for improved reliability and endurance, the valve ensures that users can take advantage of predictable performance, while its multi-jet design also reduces the destructive effects of cavitations and extends the lifecycle of the product.

WEG FREQUENCY INVERTERS AND SOFT STARTERS WEG is a supplier of electric motors and related control equipment. It currently supplies inverter drive systems and soft starters to a Spanish consortium that is working on the Tlemcem-Honaine desalination plant in Algeria, one of the largest in the world. The WEG equipment can be integrated into electrical control panels and will allow plants to increase efficiency, save energy and improve equipment reliability. The company specialises in both high efficiency motors and units developed for specific industry applications.

Tel. +971 4 238 1555

e-mail [email protected] www.bluetruck.ae

Fax. +971 4 238 2325

The market leader in mass door-to-door

of magazines within the UAE.

requirements.

distributors).

Asso iatemember

Award winning

THE LAST WORD


What will your expansion strat-egy be in these countries?There is no model which has been defined to expand in these coun-tries; it’s always a case by case situ-ation. We’re always evaluating what the potential is and what the current situation is.

You would not treat Qatar, with a population of around two million, the same as you would treat Saudi Arabia, a country with a population of around 30 million.

The aim at the end is to be pres-ent in the market, whether it is through a 100% owned company, a joint venture or a distribution agent. It’s under evaluation in all countries and it can change all the time.

The first approach can be an exclusive relationship with a dis-tributor, which can then become a partner in a joint venture, which can finally become an industrial part-ner and we may manufacture some

products together. This has been done in some

other countries already, so we don’t discount an potential situation.

What is the major challenge that crops up when operating as a manufacturer in the GCC?We’re in an environment where a worker will stay for four, five or six years in a row. He will then decide to go back to India, Pakistan or Ban-gladesh and stay there for a year and decide whether he’ll come back to you or not.

Instead of suffering through this rotation, we’re now organising the company to manage the movement of people. We’ve put in place a per-manent training programme on all aspects and I can say that we’re now a permanent school covering all as-pects of our production.

From the assembly part to the cutting and the way we’re selling the product, it’s all a repetition of what we’re doing.

MEP Middle East talks to Stanislas Lacroix, the new CEO of Aldes, about how the family owned company plans to tackle 2012, while dealing with the challenges ahead

MARKET Potential

What was the most positive GCC market for Aldes in this year just gone?For us, with the projects we’ve been involved in, Dubai was the market for 2011. As far as the UAE is con-cerned, one year Dubai does very well for us, and then it’s a bit dull. Then Abu Dhabi does very well, it depends on the year.

This year, for us, Abu Dhabi was down but Dubai was extremely hot. Next year, we estimate that Dubai will be slightly down and Abu Dhabi will be up.

It’s not a question of market potential; it’s about the execution phases that are inside the regional construction market.

Abu Dhabi is probably the place that you want to be in, it is growing at the moment, [but only] if you’re at the design or early execution for the main structure.

If you’re at the second or third step, the finalisation of the building, then for us, Dubai was the market to be in over the course of 2011.

For sure, this trend will change in 2012 as Dubai will go down sig-nificantly in the middle or end of the first quarter, while Abu Dhabi will rise from that time.

What are targets are you setting for the year ahead?For 2012, we work to be more pro-ficient and efficient internationally. Not only here in the GCC, but also in Europe, where we have quite dif-ferent challenges to face. Macro-ec-onomically speaking, we really have to be ‘on the market’.

Basically, that means that we have to be as clear as possible in our objectives and help the compa-ny team to understand the situation we’re in and ensure that they’re on the right track.

With the downturn, we’ve been forced to go to the export market as well, where the growth is pull-ing the industry, especially in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. These are two regions where we are now starting to invest and develop ourselves in a serious manner.

It’s not a question of market potential; it’s about the execution phases inside the construction market.“

THE KSA MARKET SIZE FORCES A CHANGE IN ALDES’ STRATEGY

30M

Stanislas Lacroix has recently taken over his

family’s company.

www.arma-elektropanc.com

AE ARMA-ELEKTROPANÇ

Main Contractor: AL FATTAN MRCB CONSTRUCTION CO.

Rixos Palm Jumeirah Hotel is ready for the new year!

We have handed over our second 5 star hotel in Jumeirah Palm Island.

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Kamstrup Middle East FZC · P.O. Box 500 468 · Dubai · United Arab Emirates · Tel: +971 4 453 7337 · [email protected] · www.kamstrup.com

MEP JAN 2012

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Transcript of MEP JAN 2012