High value-added manufacturing
Bahrain’s labour costs, energy costs, taxes and transport infrastructure make a compelling case for manufacturing businesses in a number of areas.
Businesses can review their supply chain and business models with the confidence that an extremely robust and sophisticated infrastructure exists in Bahrain that can be utilised to generate significant top and bottom line growth.
Firms already present in Bahrain
Bahrain is home to Alba, one of the world’s largest aluminium smelters, producing the highest grade material. This creates significant opportunities in downstream aluminium manufacturing, such as in the automotive, aviation and other precision engineering sectors.
In a recent study Porsche Consulting identified clear cost and operating advantages in Bahrain for a number of segments in the automotive sector, including high-performance car assembly and precision-engineered automotive components.
The presence in Bahrain of the international Formula 1 circuit, already recognized by the FIA as the most advanced in the world, has also led to the creation of world-leading centre for engineering and design excellence. This state-of-the-art research and development centre and distribution hub for the Middle East is housed on a 450 acre plot adjacent to the F1 track.
Factors such as these were key to RUF’s decision to locate here. A boutique auto manufacturer, they make high-specification sports cars, which are customised for every buyer. Their new assembly plant in Bahrain will be their first outside of Germany, and the first in the Arab region.
By locating in Bahrain, they are taking advantage of a pool of skilled and semi-skilled labour.
Bahrain has also attracted a number of multinationals like Kraft, who are benefiting from the skilled local workforce. Their factory in Bahrain is the largest they have built outside the US in the last 10 years.
Hempel Paints are also here, where they can manufacture more productively and cost-efficiently.
In the manufacturing sector many companies choose Bahrain as their centre for servicing the region. Yokogawa of Japan have their Middle East headquarters here, for example, to handle sales, engineering, and servicing of their industrial instruments.