The most important industrial fair in the Middle East Hilal Conferences & Exhibitions is one of the region’s leading organisers of specialist events, ensuring leading Exhibitions & Conferences are brought to the region to support the developing market.

The organiser will bring Gulf Industry 2008 to the Kingdom of Bahrain and aim to provide formidable marketing opportunities in the region’s first industrial fair of the 21st century as the Middle East transforms itself into an industrial powerhouse of global proportions.

The Gulf Industry fair will cover the key industrial sectors from aluminum, metal production and works, energy and power generation, to manufacturing and production through to metrology and logistics.

Location

As the region’s industrial base broadens, Bahrain’s central location for the Middle East continues to serve the industrial powerhouses of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait as well as the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Gulf International Industry Fair will create the ideal promotional platform for the interface between the global industrial sector and the region’s fast expanding capital and energy-intensive industrial base. From aluminium to logistics, from pipe manufacturing to petrochemicals.

Bahrain’s industrial hinterland includes more than 5,700 factories and industrial facilities with more than 3,580 alone in the region’s industrial powerhouse of Saudi Arabia.

The success of the region’s industrialisation is profound

successfully applying the comparative cost advantages

of abundant energy and a wealth of natural assets.

Projects & Development

• The Arab Gulf countries are witnessing major investments on infrastructure, industry and utilities.

• Saudi Arabia has earmarked USD 65 billion through the next 15 years to invest in water and power projects.

• Qatar will spend USD 60 billion on energy industry for the next 7 – 10 years.

• Dubai Water and Electricity Authority estimates its investment in water and electricity projects at USD 16 billion.

• $3.46 billion Industrial City at Jubail: Jubail-II, the second industrial park in Saudi Arabia's eastern port city.

• Khalifa bin Salman Port in Hidd: work is set to move ahead on

the $70 million-plus infrastructure.

• $2 billion Bahrain-Qatar Causeway: the 40-km causeway linking Bahrain to the northwestern coast of Qatar.

• $2 billion railway project: Involves building a 950-km rail link between Riyadh and the main commercial port of Saudi Arabia.

• $2.3 billion Sharq expansion: Saudi Arabia's Eastern Petrochemical Company (Sharq).

• $2.5 billion IWPP: Power and Water Utility Company for Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia.

• $1.189 billion Gulf Countries Power Grid : first phase.

• $240 million clinker plant in Southern Province in Saudi Arabia.

Key industrial indicators

• Qatar's plans ethylene production to rise to about 6 million tonnes in 2011. Kuwait is implementing a massive petrochemical expansion programme. Borouge is more than doubling capacity and a fully-integrated petrochemical project has been unveiled in Bahrain. Oman has five new petrochemical projects in development and plans to invest in Iran.

• Saudi Arabia’s Sabic, the largest manufacturing company in the Middle East is already the world's third largest producer of polyethylene and the fourth largest manufacturer of polymers, is investing more than $8 billion to raise total output to 60 million tonnes.

• Qatar’s ($550 million) new industrial area for small and medium scale industries is fast nearing completion. Once fully developed the new industrial area will have about 500 finished plots.

• The Gulf states are investing heavily in aluminium production including construction of a $3.76 billion aluminium smelter with an annual capacity of 623,000 tonnes; India’s National Aluminium Company (Nalco) plans to build a $3.4 billion,500,000-tonne aluminium smelter in the Gulf; Norsk

Hydro ASA has entered a joint venture with Qatar Petroleum to build a $1.5 billion aluminium smelting plant in Qatar; and the UAE has unveiled plans for a $6 billion aluminium smelter complex, while a major project is already under way in Oman’s Sohar.

• The Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) has attracted about $3 billion investment into the first two stages of the project.