By B Surendar | Editor, Climate Control Middle East

L-R: Johan Samuelsson, Vice President & General Manager, Trane MEA; Samir Ammari, General Manager, Dallah Trading Company; Mohyuldeen Kamel, Deputy CEO of Direct Investment, Dallah Al Baraka Holding Company and Ayman Kamel, Chairman, Dallah Trading Company, upon signing the Manufacturing Joint Venture between Trane MEA and Dallah Trading Company

Trane and Dallah Trading Company, a subsidiary of Dallah Al Baraka Holding Company, on March 15 announced a joint venture, called Dallah Trane Manufacturing, at a press conference in Dubai. The new company, to be based in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), in Saudi Arabia’s western province, will involve a 6,300-square-metre manufacturing facility on a 22,500-square-metre plot, which, senior officials from both the companies said, will become operational in November 2017.

The new facility will manufacture Trane’s air-handling unit (AHU), the Quantum Climate Changer, which has an airflow range of 1,000-65,000 cfm. It will also manufacture Trane’s double-wall, low-height AHUs, which have an airflow range of 1,000-8,000 cfm. Yet another product will be the company’s chilled-water fan-coil units.

“We want to have our manufacturing to be as close to the areas [of supply] as possible, given the substantial transport savings we can pass on to our customers,” said Johan Samuelsson, Vice President & General Manager, Trane Middle East & Africa. “We have lower cost to serve, and faster deliverability, which would tremendously benefit our customers. The demand is very strong in Saudi Arabia, and we can now deliver within 2-3 weeks, as opposed to 12 weeks. There are people who are doing that, and we now hope to displace that and get market-share.”

Samuelsson pointed out to KAEC’s brand-new port facility, which he said, hopefully would ease the traffic and provide ease of access to the manufactured goods.

Added Mohyuldeen Kamel, Deputy CEO of Direct Investment, Al Baraka Holding Company: “I thank Johan and Ayman [Kamel] for making this dream come true. As one of the leading air conditioning companies in Saudi Arabia, we are happy we are delivering even in difficult years, and this is a new milestone going forward.”

Ayman Kamel, Chairman of Dallah Trading Company, further added: “I would like to thank Trane for this facility. We are talking of more than 35 years of relationship with Trane and, hopefully, this will help us meet the needs of our customers and give them total solutions that are ‘Made in Saudi Arabia’.”