Several mega-trends are driving growth in the precast market in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the forefront of these improvements is El Seif Group, a leading privately owned group of companies founded on 1975 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the decades El Seif has been delivering high quality works, with the highest safety standards. Due to its on-going success, the company has earned an unquestionable reputation for delivering projects on time and on budget for demanding clients in both private and public sectors.
RDB – El Seif, pioneer concrete company inside El Seif group, becomes a premier precaster in the country. The massive oil production linked with the very young and growing population (which is expected double by 2050) are the main reasons which guarantee the recent huge development of Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the government has been supporting the development of the strong private active Residential construction sector: RDB – El Seif awarded the contract for design, engineering procurement, construction, testing & commissioning in the Southern border of KSA of a total of 4.520 residential units including 628 apartments building, 832 villas, schools, male & female kinder gardens, sports club, mosques, shopping malls, petrol stations and military police buildings.
Reliability, flexibility & customization, key goals for Marcantonini Concrete Technology
El Seif has built up an impressive numbers of projects in Saudi Arabia & Emirates and nowadays is one of the largest construction groups in the region. Given RDB – El Seif’s strong order base in the Southern border, the company decided recently to build a new precast factory based in Jizan: the partner chosen was Marcantonini Concrete Technology (MCT) from Italy in close cooperation with the local agency Philip A. Tabone.
RDB – El Seif finds as MCT distinctive feature the capability of design and develop the whole process of a precast factory: the concrete batching plant and distribution system was fully integrated with the supply of Hollow Core equipment, Battery Moulds & Moulds for all kind of precast element. In this way MCT proposes a turn key project which gives the customer the opportunity to produce concrete complete solution and RDB – El Seif’s full range of products includes: hollow core slabs, partition walls, columns, stairs, beams.
Marcantonini Concrete Technology was chosen as the main contractor due to the successful and long last relationship with RDB – El Seif that started in 2007 when they installed the Precast Factory in Riyadh: concrete production is consistently 600 m3 per day made up of precast elements, included Hollow Core slabs, Walls and all Precast Elements used for industrial buildings.
Marcantonini Concrete Technology has 49 years of experience in the Precast field, which has given tem an enormous amount of knowledge and experience and has earnt them an excellent reputation for supply batching plants and equipment, with this experience. Due to the high level of customization and complexity of this project RDB – El Seif felt that Marcantonini were the right supplier to work with on their project.
Sun shines in Jizan, KSA
The equipment delivered to RDB – El Seif for the new factory is huge and it gives the customer the possibility to produce, at full capacity, up to 760 m3 per day of concrete for Precast Element and 420 m3 per day of Hollow Core slabs.
The Hollow Core production is composed of 18 lines of 150 m each and the MCT batching plant can delivery concrete thanks to incredibly fast concrete distribution system.
The batching plant is equipped with no. 6 aggregates bins of total capacity of 180 m3 and no. 2 planetary mixer 3000/ 2000. The concrete transport is carried out by no. 2 high speed Flying Bucket AV 2000 able to feed no. 2 Gantry Casting Machines which can delivery the material in a fully automatic process to no. 2 extruder machines.
MCT concrete distribution system is the result of years of dedicated efforts by their engineers to achieve maximum functionality, efficiency and reliability in the rapid transport of the concrete. Flying Buckets supplied to RDB – El Seif can transport dry concrete with a speed of 240 metre per minute in a fast and controlled way so that material (fresh concrete) arrives at its destination swiftly without changing any of its characteristics.
The state of art Wi-Fi control system synchronizes the Batching Plant with the Flying Buckets and the Gantry Casting Machines with the Extruders; it allows to the batch operator to oversee the real-time position and status of every equipment.
The precast production, consisting of no. 8 Battery Moulds, no. 120 Tilting Tables and some minor elements, is supported by other two MCT concrete batching plants, everyone comprising no. 2 Planetary Mixers of 3000/2000 size. A total of 12 aggregates storage bins let the customer stock up to 360 m3 of raw material, giving the possibility of great autonomy in the production.
One of the most valued technical feature which let RDB – El Seif renew its trust in MCT is that all the three batching plants perform the aggregates dosing system with its own mobile dosing scale:
• it is completely predisposed for future installation of additional hopper or mixer;
• it guarantees best dosing accuracy for aggregates quantity due to its reduced tare (if compared with classical dosing system);
• it decreases costs connected with civil foundation works;
• it gives the customer the complete flexibility on disposal of mixers’ positions.
MCT completes the turn key project with containerized Ice flakes & Chiller Machines which can cool down concrete temperature up to 26 °C, strictly required and daily controlled by the main contractor.
The no. 3 three Ice flakes & Chiller Machines, supplied for each of the no. 3 Batching Plants, that can deliver simultaneously ice flakes and cold water to every mixer:
• total of no. 110 ton per day of ice flakes;
• total of no. 243 m3 per day of cold water at 4,0°C.
MCT, in order to respect the temperature limit and guarantee the highest concrete quality production, includes the software managing of the Ice Plants in the general Compumat software. Compumat software is completely studied & realized by MCT in house and, thanks to high level of customization, it makes possible to monitor all the aspects and stages of the whole process of the concrete production and distribution system.
Casting & Shaping the future
During the negotiation for the new factory both companies agree that the demand is still there in Saudi Arabia, but it is in the hands of the precasters to build up trust so that the final customer can rely on them.
“We went through a lot of hand sketches and then CAD drawings until we got everything laid out to what we felt was the perfect layout from an efficient and flexibility standpoint” Mr. Renzo Arletti, C.E.O. of RDB-El Seif notes.
In the last decade El Seif has grown strongly in terms of concrete production and financially.
Mr. Arletti continues: “Whenever we invest in existing or new facilities we look to the market to see who is the right partner for the investment. The choice of Marcan – tonini Concrete Technology reaffirmed a long-lasting partnership over the last 10 years, sometimes involving single equipment and sometimes entire production lines”.
The layout of the new factory has been drawn in a true partnership with the customer and Marcantonini trusts that it can offer the full extent of precasting technology.
Mr. Gabriele Falchetti, MCT Area Manager for Middle East says: “We are capable of delivering and overall design including high quality machinery and equipment for RDB – El Seif new project, with everything studied & manufactured according to customer’s detailed needs & requirements”. Mr. Falchetti emphasizes: “Our aim is to propose fully customized solutions and delivery equipment that our customer are proud to own. With our experience and technical know-how achieved during 50 years of experience, we can offer products that will allow our clients to develop their business to the highest level: efficient production, better building quality and faster return on investment.
Mr. Lamberto Marcantonini, MCT Pre – sident, adds: “Thanks to our long experience as solution & equipment supplier for the precast market, we are able to carry out such complex projects. I sincerely want to thank Mr. Arletti for the trust reserved in MCT and all the MCT team, which has been working hard to achieve the great result and respect all the deadlines agreed with the customer”.
