The Middle East aerospace market is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, enabling the region to diversify beyond the oil and gas sector. Compared with other regions, the aerospace sector in the Middle East has performed better during the recession, and its influence has been growing by leaps and bounds in the global aerospace market.

Tim Mitchell, Business Development Director of Delcam Plc, shares with International Metalworking News - Middle East about the company's development efforts in the Gulf region particularly the growing aerospace market including assessment of the metalworking industry amidst the current market slowdown.

Delcam Middle East was established four years ago in Sharjah, Dubai. "Delcam is quite new to the Middle East market. The purpose of our Dubai office is to pick up business in the region particularly in the Emirates, Saudi and other Islamic countries," Mitchell said.

The company has moved some Indian engineers from Delcam India to provide direct support to its customers in the Middle East. "Our approach is to develop a good reputation by providing local support and our name will spread by word of mouth. However, we also have a number of Aircraft manufacturers who are customers of ours in Europe, and are setting up in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi. So we are following up these through our European contacts."

The aerospace industry demands the highest levels of quality and consistency, plus cost-effective production and the shortest-possible delivery times. Delcam抯 wide range of software and services helps companies both large and small to meet these requirements.

Aerospace industry

"The Gulf market is very different to anywhere else," explained Mitchell. "It is a very strange market because obviously Delcam's core business is related to manufacturing. In terms of manufacturing, the aerospace market is by far the largest. There is not much going on in terms of automotive and electronics. The second biggest market for us out there is healthcare. Both of these market sectors are in early days; however, due to high levels of investment they are growing quickly. And there is a thirst for high technology, such as that supplied by Delcam.



"The downturn has made us be much more critical about where we are trying to target our software and develop accordingly."


Generally speaking, the region aims to become the largest aerospace hub in the world by 2020; this is both in terms of air travel and activities related to aircraft manufacture (both civil and defence). Possibly the two largest airports in the world will be in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The two respective airlines, Emirates and Ethiad are investing heavily in new aircraft, which enables much manufacturing to be done locally under the "Offset" scheme."

There have been a lot of investments out of Dubai from the Sheiks themselves. They are now doing aircraft components manufacture, structural parts, engine parts, and they are manufacturing those inside Dubai. They have set-up a lot of investment companies. There's a new one that's come up from Abu Dhabi, an investment company called Mubadala. We actually picked- up some very strong inquiries from the recent Dubai Aerospace Show, which took place at the Dubai airport last November 15 -19 2009. It was opened by Sheik Mohammed himself. It抯 the largest aerospace show in the Middle East. They don't have any problem with money. They want to get the best technology so that they can make products very efficiently. For Delcam, this is quite a good opportunity.



So I see in the long term, Middle East will be a big market for Delcam. At the minute it is a relatively small market but the potential is very big, even if we only just look at the aerospace sector, which is what we were doing. We have some other business there. But in the long term aerospace is going to be pretty huge there."

Delcam systems have been used, at some stage, on virtually every major aircraft programme in recent years. Our customers have undertaken projects in all the various areas that go towards producing a successful aircraft, from developing more fuel-efficient engines, to manufacturing airframe components more effectively, and even in designing more comfortable and more attractive interiors. They have worked on all scales of project, from the manufacture of components for UAVs and helicopters up to the production of engines and airframes for the largest passenger and transport aircraft.



Areas of concern in 2010

"Of course I think every company related to manufacturing is going to be concerned because of the state of the world economy. I think a good company is one that will diversify and look for markets, which are not affected by the recession, the geographic market and the industrial market sectors.

I think the challenge for Delcam is to continue to identify areas where there are good growth opportunities and focus our efforts in these areas. Of course there are areas of concern, but we see opportunities as a result of all these. I am very confident. Financially, Delcam is a very strong company -- our balanced sheet is very strong. We are a public company, so it is available for everyone to see. We don't owe anyone any money. We have cash surplus. We are on a strong position. We will continue to invest in R&D and in marketing. Yes I am a little bit concerned, but not much. I think my competitors are much more concerned, hopefully."



Metalworking sector

"The metalworking industry is in a terrible situation, obviously. Everybody is having a very bad time. We are starting to see rationalisation. Machine tool companies coming together and partnering. I predict there is much more going on in the metalworking industry as a whole. Some companies will not survive for sure. Other companies will join up for others thru partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and companies going after for business. Having said all of that, there are signs of improvement in some areas-early signs.

The slowdown means more aggressively looking at all the opportunities, which is good for the business since it makes you much more focus. We have to maximise ourselves. Clearly, our biggest cost is our software development, so we have to make sure that we invest in the sectors that will bring us the biggest return. The downturn has made us much more critical about where we are trying to target our software and develop accordingly. After every type of recession, there are always benefits. I think this is true in almost any business. Companies that survive the recession will come out strongly. That is true to Delcam."(finished)