The UAE’s Arkan Building Material Company is to build a $27m dry mortar plant at Mafraq in Abu Dhabi.  

In a statement the company said that construction work has already started at the new facility, which will be spread over 57,000 square metres, with completion due for the fourth quarter of 2011.

The company also said that the product range produced at the new plant will include machine applied plasters/renders, tile mortars, masonry mortars, and floor screeds.

Dry mortars are a blend of inorganic binders, mineral aggregates and additives, which are homogeneously mixed in the factory and transported to the job site in dry form in bags or silos.

Established in 2005, Arkan is 51 per cent owned by the state-controlled General Holding Corporation, with the remaining 49 per cent of shares listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market.