At the heart of infrastructure

Workers at Ducab's Jebel Ali facility

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One of the most unique players in this diverse market is 3M, which encompasses both the telecoms and electrical sectors in its Electro & Communications Business (ECB).

“Basically we specialise in cable accessories for the data and power side. There is some commonality, but different products in some areas,” says ECB Middle East region marketing manager Martin Parsons.

“On the electrical side, we provide cable accessories for low, medium and high voltage applications in utilities, oil and gas and construction. We carry a wide range, from joints and terminations to insulation and sealing tapes and electrical-supply, consumer-type items such as cable ties, sprays and connectors.”

Parsons says 3M is particularly renowned for its premium PVC insulation tapes, which it invented more than 60 years ago.

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Such innovation has long been the mainstay of the company, as with its new resin kits, which are environment-friendly (Scotchcast #40), and fully compliant with EU directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS) and EU regulation 1907/2007/EC (REACH). Resin 40 has hydrophobic properties, which make it ideal for use in the presence of water. It is also available in a bag with a pouring nozzle, which means one less step in the preparation process.

Another example of the company’s ongoing product development is its Cold Shrink technology for joints and terminations. “In the past when a medium-voltage joint and termination was carried out, you needed a cable with a connector, you needed to replace the insulation layers, and then finally you needed an outer jacket to protect the cable. Cold Shrink for single-core applications provides the connector, insulation and outer jacket protection all in a single design. No heat shrinking is involved, so installation is a lot safer and quicker,” says Parsons.

Dubai a leader

In terms of overall trends, Parsons says the Middle East “is in some cases ahead of Europe. I think Dubai is a leader. It is a market that readily accepts new things. We have often sold products here first, compared to the European market where they were developed initially.” Still, this remains a ‘tough’ market as “there are a lot of low-end entrants, mainly from China and Asia, with no-name brand products, and it does make it harder to compete and demonstrate value.

“But I think it has improved tremendously compared to a decade ago. The region is on the right track to improve standards and boost quality. After the construction boom and subsequent downturn, it has learnt to approach business differently,” says Parsons. This vindicates 3M’s faith in the region. The company has been represented in the Middle East for 35 years, originally setting up in Cyprus before moving to Lebanon, Sharjah and then finally Dubai.

“This region is very important to 3M. It is earmarked as one of its fastest-growing markets. We are setting up an Innovation Centre for customers, which demonstrates its long-term commitment,” says Parsons. Another indication of the importance of the region is that the Middle East and Africa market now has its own VP, based in Dubai.

“Each region now has its own expertise and skills set to support the region. So we are becoming less dependent on the US and European market to develop and support the region over here. In the years to come we will have even stronger technical support, product development and local manufacturing coming through.”

Parsons says “3M did extremely in the downturn. Of course, we were not immune locally, but globally it did fantastically. This is largely due to the opportunities offered by its broad product range and technology offering. As a division, we were hit last year, but not as badly as our competitors. I think we weathered the storm far better and came out the stronger for it. We did not see any retrenchments or downsizing, and have had a tremendous turnaround this year.

“We beat expectations in the first quarter, and showed double-digit growth in the second,” says Parsons. Last year was a totally different kettle of fish: the oil and gas sector was suffering due to the drop in the oil price, and utilities were putting power projects on hold. This made for very tough market conditions. “Dubai is still under pressure, but Abu Dhabi is picking up, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman are doing very well.