Drake & Skull concludes key projects in Kuwait

Article posted by Coliseum, February 20^th, 2020

Image: SSH

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based public joint stock company which operates in the construction sector – Drake & Scull International (DSI) – has concluded engineering and construction activities on two key projects – Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah Indoor Sports Complex and Sabah Al-Salem University City – in Kuwait.

According to constructionweekonline.com, DSI is a Dubai Financial Market-listed company. The contractor’s Kuwait-based ancillary, Drake & Scull for Electrical Contracting (DSI Kuwait) has worked on the projects. The parent company completed two separate engineering and construction projects in Kuwait worth Dh271 million through its subsidiary DSI Kuwait.

The $19.3m (AED71m) electromechanical engineering contract for the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah Indoor Sports Complex required DSI Kuwait to cover services including supply, installation, and connection of fire alarms and sprinklers, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); telephones, Internet and satellites; as well as a state-of-the-art scoreboard.

The Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah Indoor Sports Complex opened to the public on January 16, 2020, during the inaugural ceremony of the 19th Asian Men’s Handball Championship.

DSI Kuwait has also finished work on final phase of the Sabah Al-Salem University’s College of Arts and Education. The firm bagged the $54.5m (AED200m) main contract in 2019. The development embodied installation of plumbing, fire alarm, and HVAC systems as well as the supply, installation, testing, commissioning, and maintenance of electromechanical works for all the structures.

The constructionweekonline.com quoted the Chairman of DSI, Shafiq Ahmed Saleh Abdelhamid as saying on conclusion of work, “These two key projects demonstrate DSI Kuwait’s strong capabilities in executing complex, high-quality work. We thank our Kuwaiti partners for their trust and cooperation and look forward to continuing to deepen and expand our presence in the Kuwaiti construction sector, thereby contributing to the country’s economic growth and development.”

Some of the major engineering and construction projects that DSI Kuwait prides itself on being involved in and completing include the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training Centre, Nursing Institute, British Industries’ Printing and Packaging Company in Shuwaikh, Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters, the State Audi bureau of Kuwait, the Public Institution for Social Security Building in Kuwait City , as well as the building of the Department of Immigration at Al-Dajeej in Kuwait.

Drake & Scull for Electrical Contracting (DSI Kuwait) established itself in this Western Asia country in 2004.

DSI, like its peers in the UAE, has struggled due to a softer property and construction sector in its home UAE market. It posted a net loss of Dh4.5 billion for 2018, widening from Dh1.18bn in 2017.

As per a note by the National Bank of Kuwait, the construction market in Kuwait saw a downturn in 2019, with the pace of project awards in the fourth quarter slowing to a historically weak level of 180 million Kuwaiti dinars (Dh2.1bn), compared to 281m dinars during the same period in 2018.

The total awards stood at 1.1bn dinars in 2019, despite an initially planned figure of 4.4bn dinars at the start of the year, the note further revealed.

“This was largely due to delays, prolonged bid negotiations and various technical difficulties, especially in the challenging area of public-private partnerships,” the note added, referring to MEED projects data.

The National Bank of Kuwait note further informed that about 8bn dinars worth of projects are planned for 2020, mostly in the petrochemical sector.

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