Hassan Abul plans major expansion.

(From Gulf Construction)

Kuwait-based Hassan Abul Company, which has recently opened up new branches in the fast-growing construction markets of Doha and Dubai, is looking at expanding its marble factory to keep up with the increased demand. "The expansion of our marble business has been necessitated by the growing demand for marble and associated products," says Mohammed Boushehri, manager, projects. "The marble business is becoming strong in Kuwait primarily because of the increasing popularity of this beautiful natural stone, which reflects artistic taste and nobility. "As part of the expansion plan, the company will construct a new marble plant to meet the growth in demand. The new factory will be opened in the fourth quarter of 2005. It has also installed high-tech machines that will help the company to offer higher quality and better finishes for its products, while at the same time help it raise its production figures from the current 5,700 sq m per month to about 14,000 sq m per month. All this has been done with the aim of achieving high levels of customer satisfaction, he says

The company procures its raw materials in slabs or cut-to-size from around the world including from quarries in the Middle East, India, Tunisia, Turkey, Portugal and Italy. These products are used for various applications including flooring, cladding of walls and columns

The marble factory is equipped with sophisticated machinery including: - Laser-guided cutting mac-hines from Pedrini of Italy, which cut marble and granite from slabs to produce tiles; - Manual cutting machines from Freeze Machine of Italy, which manually cut marble and granite from slabs to produce tiles; - Fine cutting water jet machine from Italy to cut marble/granite into ornate designs based on AutoCad drawings; - Edge shaping machines from Comandully Speedy of Italy to provide a fine finish to exposed edges of marble and granite; as well as Comandulli Edilux for edge polishing, bevelled and chamfered edges and mitre joints for marble and granite

- Numerical-controlled workstation (CNC machine) from Italy which produces three-dimensional images in marble or granite. It is used to produce curved panels for curved wall and column cladding and balustrades; - Multi-purpose workstation from Thibuat of France, which provides a high degree of polishing/brushing to marble and granite surfaces. It is used for fine polishing to the edges of counter-tops and any curved as well as plain surfaces; and - Numerical controlled workstation (lathe machine) from Omag of Italy, which produces solid columns and balustrades in marble or granite. Among the various ...