Flowserve Enters Joint Venture with S&A Abahsain Co. Ltd.

Flowserve Corp. recently announced the signing of a joint venture agreement with S&A Abahsain Co. Ltd., a diverse Saudi Arabian business entity spanning industry, trading, construction, real estate and services.

Building on existing joint ventures with the Flowserve Pump and Seal divisions, Abahsain and Flowserve have expanded their relationship to include the manufacturing of control valves, ball valves, plug valves, butterfly valves and electric and pneumatic actuators for the oil and gas, petrochemical, power and water industries.

“We are pleased with this new joint venture with Abahsain Group,” said Lewis Kling, Flowserve president and chief executive officer. “This new agreement and partnership positions us well to continue to serve our valuable customers in the Saudi Arabian market.”

The joint venture, called Flowserve/Abahsain Flow Control Co., Ltd., will begin initial manufacturing from a temporary facility in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. A new facility capable of manufacturing the full line of valve products is planned to be constructed in Dammam in 2009, and is expected to be operational by January 2010.

“Flowserve has existing pump and seal operations in Saudi Arabia,” said Tom Pajonas, president of the Flowserve Flow Control Division. “By signing this agreement with Abahsain, we are increasing Flowserve’s presence in the Kingdom by adding local valve and actuator manufacturing capabilities. This underscores our commitment to Saudization and to the needs of our customers in the Saudi Arabian market.”

“This agreement substantially expands our existing relationship with Flowserve,” said Shaukat Sheikh, director of Abahsain Group. “We are especially pleased to be associated with the prestigious Flowserve line of flow control products. Abahsain is already a local manufacturer of commodity valves and with this new joint venture agreement, we expect to become a major player in the critical engineered valve segment.”

Source: Flowserve Corp.