Business & Finance Club - Abu Dhabi: Austria-based construction company Strabag has won a contract worth 105 million euros (Dh494.14 million) to build parts of the new Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi, the company announced yesterday in a statement from Vienna.

The construction will be done by a Strabag subsidiary, Ed. Zueblin AG, in association with local partner Al Jaber Transport & General Contracting LLC.

The Strabag firm will be the lead manager in the consortium, the company said. The overall investment in the new port is 220 million euros (Dh1.04 billion). Construction will start this month and is scheduled to be finished in August 2012. The order comprises a big portion of Strabag's Middle East revenues. "The Middle East contributed 350 million euros to our business in 2009, which makes around three per cent of Strabag's revenues," company spokeswoman Paula Rys said.

More in the pipeline

The construction giant, listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, made overall revenues of 12.55 billion euros in 2009.

The new Khalifa Port will be built around 60 kilometres outside Abu Dhabi and will replace the existing Mina Zayed in the capital's centre.

Strabag's subsidiary will construct 25 buildings in the project, among them a control centre, office building, hospital, fire department, warehouses and the entire infrastructure over 85 square kilometres, Rys said.

Strabag Chairman Hans Peter Haselsteiner said yesterday he looks at the new contract as an indication that "we can break into the Middle East market." The builder is already present in the region with several projects, Rys said. One of the latest orders for more than 40 million euros came from Saudi Arabia to construct buildings and a factory facility for the port and the refinery of Jubail.

In Oman, Strabag recently received a 75-million euro order to build two airports, one in Sohar and the other in Adam City. Strabag has been engaged in road construction in Oman since 1971 and currently generates revenues of 115 million euros with 2,500 employees in the country.

In Abu Dhabi, Strabag is building an expansion of the facilities for oil refining company Takreer for 94 million euros.

Strabag is also building parts of the new Shaikh Zayed Desert Learning Centre in Al Ain, a massive development that comes with a zoo and hundreds of villas.

The Austrian company is also bidding for a new toll highway project that is planned to connect the UAE with Saudi Arabia.

Sini to supply Shah project

Siirtec Nigi, the Italian oil and gas engineering and contracting firm known as Sini, has won a contract worth more than 40 million euros (Dh188.30 million) to supply equipment for the world's biggest sulphur recovery plant as part of Abu Dhabi's Shah sour gas field development, the top company official said.

"We were awarded...a 40 million euro-plus deal by Saipem for supplying all the key equipment of the biggest sulphur recovery unit in the world at the Shah project," Sini chairman Adalberto Bestetti said.

SINI won the subcontract after Saipem earlier this year was awarded three contracts by Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. affiliate in charge of the $12 billion Shah field development, including one for the sulphur recovery facilities valued at $1.45 billion.