Fabrication Industry

Inco adapting to new realities

A worker putting the finishing touches to a tank at an Inco fabrication shop

Dubai-based fabricator Inco Group is seeing a shift in its focus from the oil and gas industry to other industries such as electricity and water and petrochemicals. 

The oil and gas industry, once a mainstay for the company, was relegated to the second place after electricity and water in 2015, largely due to a hold on projects in that industry, especially oil terminal projects, said assistant manager of production and projects Hiral Poshiya.

“The Inco Group has been shifting its focus for some time now, and has positioned itself very well in the electricity and water industry, which will allow us to not only weather the storm, but also prosper in the current economic climate,” Poshiya added. 

The company has also found some success in the petrochemical industry, which came in third place in terms of contribution to revenue. 

While its main product, storage tanks, contributed the most to the company’s revenue in 2015, power plant products such as ducts, stacks and flares weren’t far behind. The company also did a lot of structural fabrication in 2015, including the fabrication of piping skids and harps.

In terms of business, 2015 was good for the company, better than 2014, since it concentrated on winning more contracts in the electricity and water sector instead of oil and gas projects.

Prospects for 2016 are looking good, according to Poshiya, as the Middle East region is witnessing an expansion in power plants, and the company is hopeful of winning many contracts this way. “We will be focusing on waste to energy, as well as sewage projects. This is our best alternative to the oil and gas industry. If all goes according to plan, 2016 will be an even better year for us than 2015,” Poshiya added.   
With an overall capacity of over 42,000 tonnes per year, the Inco Group has five fabrication shops spread throughout the Middle East, with the latest one in Zubair, Iraq completed last year. The company has two workshops in Sohar, Oman (capacity 1,000 tonnes/month each), one in Dubai (900 tonnes/month) and one in Gebze, Turkey (600 tonnes/month). 

All workshops produce different products, suited to the demands of local markets. 

The company plans on expanding the capacity of its Dubai workshop in the near future and has already bought land for the same. 

The company mainly works with steel as its raw material, but it also has capabilities to manufacture using super duplex and alloy metals, said Hiral. It procures 41 per cent of its material from the GCC region, 27 per cent from Europe and 12 per cent from Korea with the rest coming from the US and India. 

The Inco Group is an approved supplier to many high profile companies including Gasco, Bourouge, Takreer, BP, Total, Napco, and Siemens while its main end users were Emirates Global Aluminium (Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah operations) and Dewa in 2015. 

It recently completed a project with Bilfinger Babcock for Dubal, for the production of boiler accessories such as ducts and stacks which utilised almost 1000 tonnes of steel.