Al-Jawdah achieves major growth

In response to growing domestic demand for ceramic tiles, Al-Jawdah Ceramics (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) has started up an expansion programme that will allow it to reach a production capacity of 120,000 sq.m/day by 2015. The announcement was made by the company's chairman and founder, Abdul Rahman S. Al-Omran. Al-Jawdah Ceramics, set up in 1996, currently produces around 8 million sq.m of red body floor and wall tiles a year using Italian technology supplied by leading groups, including Sacmi, Siti-B&T and System.

The new investment, totalling around 100 million euro, is for construction of a new factory with an 82,000 sq.m covered area on a 120,000 sq.m site located in the 2nd Industrial City of Riyadh, not far from the first facility. The new factory will also be equipped with the latest Italian technologies, including digital decoration technology, which will soon also be installed in the first facility.

The new factory will also serve to expand the current product range. It will produce glazed and unglazed porcelain tile as well as monoporosa wall tiles and single fired floor tiles, and will introduce new sizes including 40x40 cm, 60x60 cm and 90x120 cm.

The expansion will take place in various stages. The first will be completed in 2014 with the start-up of the line designed for production of 40,000 sq.m/day. Immediately afterwards, installation work will begin for the second line with similar production capacity, due to start up in 2015.

The expansion project also includes the construction of a second plant for the production of third fire accents with a production capacity of  5 million pieces/year, alongside the 3 million pieces/year currently produced by the Saudi group.

Al-Jawdah is certified by TÜV to ISO 9001-2008 standards and the company's products are certified to SASO standards in force in Saudi Arabia.