Lafarge's products and solutions presented at The Big 5 trade show in Dubai

Lafarge will present its cement, concrete, and aggregates businesses in the GCC region- at Middle East Concrete show at the Big 5.

Lafarge supports all its customers' construction projects

Lafarge aims to use its presence at the fair both to get a better understanding of the expectations of its customers, GCC players in the construction sector, and introduce them to innovative and flexible solutions tailored to local requirements.

Lafarge's dynamic innovation policy and a pioneering commitment to sustainable construction enable Lafarge in the GCC to propose exclusive value-added products and solutions such as:

• Cements ranging from Portland cement to environmentally friendly Portland limestone cement for general purpose concretes and ready-mix and sulphate- resisting Portland cement for concretes in soil, groundwater, seawater, etc.

• ARTEVIA: a range of decorative ready-mix concretes offering durable design solutions for complex shapes, easy to install and maintain.

• ULTRA SERIES: a specialized range of concrete solutions developed for the local market and rigorously tested and used in any project environment and weather condition, including Stabilized Mortar, Fiber, Self Compacting, Watertight, Readymix Screed concretes.

• AGILIA, a complete range of self compacting concretes and screeds. Its mix design stems from tight control on two seemingly opposite physical properties: fluidity and stability.

• HYDROMEDIA is a new fast draining concrete pavement solution designed and engineered to rapidly direct rain water from streets, parking surfaces, driveways, and sidewalks.

Global experience applied in the Middle East

Lafarge, which has operated in the Middle East for 30 years, significantly strengthened its presence there with the acquisition of Orascom Cement in 2008, making the Group a major cement company in the region.

It is now present in nine countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Syria) with more than 8,000 employees and an annual production capacity of 23 million tons of cement.

In the GCC, Lafarge is regularly involved in large worksites and has in particular supplied:

- Cement for Dubai Metro and Atlantis Hotel.
- Concrete for Qatar museum in Doha and the construction of natural gas drilling facilities in Qatar, which required the supply of over 2 million m3 of concrete in total, including special concretes
- Concrete for numerous landmark projects in Oman and cement supply for the same in Saudi Arabia.

Despite a currently more difficult economic context, sustained demographic growth and significant accommodation and infrastructure needs continue to confirm this region's potential.