The company’s plant manufactures and sells standard or fabricated grating panels either, galvanised or un-galvanised, serving the local industry with special emphasis on the oil and petrochemical sectors

In 2006, Al Othman Holding Company decided to expand its core business by establishing a grating manufacturing plant under the name Tazez Advance Industrial Co (USG), to produce various unique metal products tailored to market needs witnessing a significant growth.

USG is located at Dammam City in Saudi Arabia. Today, USG is ranked as an industrial leader owning the most sophisticated gratings plant in the kingdom, equipped with the latest computerised (CNC) production lines technology. It also has the highest manufacturing capacity in the Middle East region.

USG’s plant manufactures and sells standard or fabricated grating panels either galvanised or un-galvanised serving the local industry with special emphasis on the oil and petrochemical sectors.

In addition, it manufactures all types of lighting poles including telecom poles, traffic lighting poles; light and medium steel structure processed with hot dip galvanisation and Epoxy wet painting.

According to the company’s general manager Yousif M Shanti, USG’s production quality conforms to the standards laid out by Saudi Arabia’s major oil and gas companies like Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), Saudi Aramco, Ministry of Municipalities (MOM), EPC contractors, as well as to those of the private construction sector firms.

The company is now planning to upgrade the production lines during the current year, which will improve the quantitative and qualitative production. It also plans to expand its products range and marketing segment.

EVG GRATING AND FABRICATION PLANT

During the last quarter of 2006, USG installed and commissioned the state-of-the-art EVG grating machine and production commenced as per the ISO international standards.

USG now manufactures electro-forged steel grating panels in standard dimensions of 1 m by 6 m as well as fabricated panels in different shapes and sizes along with any necessary stair treads all produced in accordance with the customer’s specifications and requirements.

The EVG machine ensures maximum efficiency and can produce gratings in varying range of sizes and configuration. At present, the production speed ranges up to 3 linear metres of grating every minute. The elimination of import duty and sea freight within GCC countries has a considerable impact on price, Shanti says.

LIGHT, MEDIUM STEEL STRUCTURE FABRICATION

During the last quarter of 2014, USG started to diversify its activities, focusing more on the steel structure sector. "Whatever be the client’s design – we are able to execute, whether it’s structural or mechanical design with comprehensive solutions such as shot blasting, sweep blasting, HD galvanising and wet painting," says Shanti.

USG management started to get more involved with its clients, sharing its designing solutions to improve the logistics and the execution efficiency. The whole team, consisting of engineering, projects planning and quality control department get into deep details of each project to understand the needs of a client, vital to achieve perfection.

The company has started developing the current production lines by adding new CNC machines and automatic equipment to enhance the production quality and output capacities. The new section can fabricate light and medium steel structures, cage ladders, platforms, base frames, staircase, handrail system, membrane bioreactor (MBR) special tanks, flanges and accessories.

HOT-DIP GALVANISING PLANT

USG also boasts of its own exclusively designed in-house galvanising plant. Hot-dip galvanising is the process of coating iron or steel with a thin zinc layer by passing the steel through a molten bath of zinc at a temperature of around 860-deg F (460-deg C). When exposed to the atmosphere, pure zinc reacts with oxygen to form zinc oxide, which further reacts with carbon dioxide to form zinc carbonate, a dull grey, fairly strong material that stops further corrosion in many circumstances, protecting the steel below from the elements.

Galvanised steel is widely used in applications where rust resistance is required. The galvanising plant is designed by Protherm Engineering UK and equipped with Zinc Kettle size (16 m by 1.6 m by 2.8 m) which covers all galvanising requirements for the following: steel poles; heavy and medium structural steel; steel grating; miscellaneous steel products; handrails; ladders, cage ladders and stairs; steel plates and steel pipes and tubes.

POLES FACTORY

USG offers a wide range of steel poles in various thicknesses and lengths of up to 16 metres. The poles have various uses as industrial poles, lighting poles for stadiums, highways, public facilities and high mast, including traffic poles, advertising poles, general purpose poles. For power distribution / transmission, it produces low and medium voltage distribution line poles and also high voltage transmission and communication monopoles of up to 132 KV.

To meet companies’ aesthetic requirements, USG offers a wide selection of finishes. Companies can choose from a traditional galvanised finish or a variety of protective coloured coatings, including ‘paint over-galvanised’ poles. Apart from the standard range of products, USG also manufactures customised poles.

Pole production process: A full-automated line starts from de-coiling cut to length, trapezium shearing, CNC bending, automatic submerge arc welding lines with thanks to the robotic handling system, which assures the high accuracy and the optimum production efficiency.