Obeikan Glass sees steady growth, works on 2 new investments: CFO

James Clarke, CFO of Obeikan Glass Co. said that he expects steady growth in the company’s results following the robust performance achieved last year.
 

He also stated that the company’s investment in Saudi Alucast Co. (SAC), which stands at 60%, will likely begin to generate revenues as early as next year.
 

“It's a slightly different play in the sense that it's a sideways move outside of the glass industry, but it will generate significant growth for us by adopting in a new market and an opportunity in a market at the moment isn't served,” he said, in an interview with Argaam.
 

The company is currently working on two new investments, one is for a production line for solar PV glass, and the other for expanding production lines and boosting output capacity by 80%, he stated.
  
These projects will enhance the company’s market position, Clarke added, expecting them to go live in 2027.
  

The Saudi market represents a huge investment opportunity, especially in the field of engineered aluminium parts.
 

He also said that the Saudi market represents 70% of the company’s revenues, while exports represent the remaining 30%.
 

The CFO also indicated that the high shipping costs affected his company’s export markets, saying that the company tends to come to close positions within Europe such as Greece and the MENA region, as it adopts a flexible strategy enabling it to adopt with shipping costs whenever there are favorable opportunities.
 

The Chinese competition is huge and it's an ever-present concern for us within Saudi Arabia. From our perspective, we are slightly protected by trade tariffs but our role internally is to just make sure that we have the most efficient process and cheapest prices for the products that we're making so it gives us the flexibility in face of global prices,” Clarke stated.
 

According to Clarke, the company’s loans, which currently stand at about SAR 51 million, have been taken out to assist with working capital requirements and investments, as well as funding some CAPEX to increase the efficiencies in the plant in the long term.