Coatings and platings specialist Marami Metal Plating set up its hot dip galvanising facilities only a year and a half ago but that segment of its business grew by 194 per cent by the end of 2012 and accounted for 56 per cent of the company’s revenues, its managing director says.

“Hot dip galvanising is our best performer simply due to the industry it services – construction. With construction’s growing requirements and the fact that most structural steel needs to be protected from corrosion, galvanising will always lead the way,” Rajeev Daswani observed.

Next to do well was hard chrome plating, which Daswani described as “the bread and butter of all industrial coatings.”  It accounted for 20 per cent of the turnover, growing by 4 per cent in 2012.

It was followed by electroless nickel plating, which is a very specialised coating used predominantly for the high-end oil and gas industry where protection against hydrogen sulphides is very essential for the preservation of  material. Its share in the turnover was 12 per cent and it registered 8 per cent growth year on year. 

Next in Marami’s turnover performance was electro-galvanising which is controlled zinc coating (10 per cent of turnover). “It has great aesthetic value,” said Daswani with finishes coming in blue, yellow, black and green.  Electroplated zinc is used in the oil and gas and hardware sectors and also on industrial structural steel including channels and beams. 

Daswani: specialisation is key

“People don’t realise that structural steel doesn’t always need to be hot dip galvanised, in fact electroplated zinc (electro-galvanising) has great benefits as the post-plated zinc is followed by a chromate passivation, which protects the zinc from corrosion,” Daswani pointed out.  Marami has 6 to 6.5 m structures for electro-galvanising, amounting to the biggest bath in the region for electro-plated zinc.  All other coatings represent about 1 per cent of Marami’s overall turnover and new requirements keep coming its way.  Many new clients ask for several different plating and coatings services and the company’s customised coating contracts enable it to set up baths for their unique requirements.  Currently, it offers over 30 different coatings and the list is growing.

The Dubai firm has invested aggressively in tanks and equipment, new alliances and ventures, the fruits of which will be realised this year, says the MD. “We are very excited about 2013 and expect to see a great increase in our revenues through our services,” he says.

A key to Marami’s success could be specialisation. “We’re the only specialists in the region when it comes to plating. We find a few companies here that do carry out plating. However, the service is one of their many offerings, and attention and focus deviate,” notes Daswani. “We’re happy to increase the number of coatings we offer but we will not detour into something that has nothing to do with what we are best at – platings and coatings.”

The company updates its offerings and knowledge by bringing in new and better coatings. Although basic coatings will always have their own place and requirements, Marami realises that constant innovation and new options need to be made available to match growth in the increasing manufacturing and reconditioning businesses coming to the region.

Marami is also one of the first plating and galvanising companies in the region to have begun a green initiative under which it proactively reduces waste, becoming more eco-friendly. It says it has taken many new measures to improve its green footprint and this year it hopes to even eliminate disposal of wastewater completely from its systems, something Daswani says is “completely unheard of.” The company has received the ISO 14001 and 18001 certifications in addition to 9001.

The company works closely with the oil and gas, construction, manufacturing and reconditioning industries meeting their overall plating and galvanising needs. It counts 1,500 customers some of whom are the world’s biggest names and industry leaders including those in the region’s oil and gas sector.

Marami does jobs for Adnoc through their supplier network and for Dubai government projects including the metro and airports, “When you see heavy equipment, chances are hard chrome plating of their pistons in hydraulic cylinders has been done by us,” Daswani says triumphantly.

“If you see galvanised structures or fasteners, chances are they have been done by us as well.”

The company also offers machining services, which complement its plating and coating facilities. It caters to the grinding of all types of cylinders, pistons, rollers and shafts.

Commenting on the UAE coatings industry, Daswani says it is not too large though players within the sector are increasing. There is an increase in reconditioning of spare parts and machine parts where the trend is shifting from procuring new parts to repairing locally.

“My thought is that the industry here is just starting out. There’s a lot to come.”