The contract involves the delivery and installation of a new 3.6-metre-wide tissue mill with a fibre preparation plant to develop recycled products, a bale conveyor and combining winder. The expansion will raise capacity from 25,000 tonnes a year (t/y) to 60,000 t/y of paper products. The project will be financed through a combination of debt and equity.

Work on the plant is expected to begin by the end of the year with tenders for the civil and installation works expected to be issued by mid-October. Production is scheduled to begin by 2007. Canada's Cansultis the consultant.

The expansion is the first to be undertaken at the mill since it began operating in 2002. A team of Over Meccanica, Europe's ABBand Finland's Alhstromprovided and installed the plant's original processing equipment. The main consultant was Tebodin Middle East, part of the Netherlands-based Tebodin Group. Switzerland's Erma Engineeringwas the technical consultant.

The decision to increase capacity was taken after the company experienced an annual 5 per cent increase in market growth over the last two years. The facility produces a range of fine paper products, including facial tissues, toilet rolls, napkins and kitchen rolls. The plant exports about 80 per cent of its products to the GCC, Europe and Australia.

The facility was originally to be built in Dubai Investments Park (DIP), but was moved to Abu Dhabi's industrial area due to DIP's lack of accessibility to gas at the time. The company is owned by Abu Dhabi National Industrial Projects (ADNIP), the local Al-Jaber Groupand Bahrain-based Maskati Brothers & Company.

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