Demand for prefabricated buildings is rising following an increase in oil prices and an upsurge in construction activities.

A lot of exploration and drilling activities are going on in the region. Other activities that have led to the boom include reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides Middle East, Africa is also emerging as a strong market for portable housing.
Red Sea Housing, leading manufacturer of pre-fabricated buildings, provides a broad range of housing solutions for commercial and residential applications. Its international headquarters is located in Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai. Another manufacturing facility of the Saudi owned company is located in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
The company is in the process of setting up its third manufacturing facility in Accra, Ghana, to meet the increasing demand in that region. To be operation later this year the facility will have a land area of 75,000 sq m and 13,000 sq m of factory under roof.
Red Sea Housing was established 29 years ago in Saudi Arabia. In 1997, it moved one of its manufacturing facilities from Jeddah to Dubai.
'We moved to Dubai because of easy access to this part of the world and also because of Jebel Ali Free Zone,' says John N Moon, deputy general manager.
'We still have a factory in Jubail, it services Saudi, Kuwait and Iraq markets. Our facility in Dubai services rest of the world.
'Our major activities for oil and gas sector have been in Africa now primarily in western Africa but our market area is Africa, GCC and Middle East and western Asia. We have nine about specifications of units or models that we provide. Flexibility is one of our greatest assets. We strive to meet customer's specific needs.'
Red Sea offers a full range of services from design, marketing, pre fabrication, delivery, installation and follow up service.
The company provides turnkey package solution - completely furnished buildings, utilities and infrastructure works.
'We have units that are suitable either as a base camp or as movable camps, seismic camps and exploration. We do rig camps,' says Moon.
'We also manufacture rolling roughneck series, especially suitable for seismic applications. This heavy-duty unit is mounted on a steel skid to provide easy mobilisation and swift transfer from one project to another.
 'We have a product really popular with oil companies and that is a steel container type unit that is either on a configuration of a refurbished shipping container 20 or 40 ft or the oil fields have a preference for 10ft by 32 ft cabins. We manufacture that to same specifications as a shipping container.' 
The interior lining of the container is PVC insulted panel that we extrude manufacture here in our premises. It is fire resistant. Interior walls are white hence maintenance free. The panel can be cleaned with soap and water whenever it gets dirty. The walls are also strong enough to hang things.
It is also ideal for tropical climate and is termite resistant. We give it life span 25 years but it is probably longer. The product is also well insulated with polystyrene.
'We are now working on polyurethane foam injection, which will be in the market in a couple of months time. The product is still in development stage,' says Moon.
'The market is changing. Earlier people in oil and gas sector would buy products with four to five year life span and then dismantle it and sell but now people are looking for quality products with a longer life span.'
The company's manufacturing facility in Dubai is around 44,000 sq m, with about 14,000 sq m under roof. It has its own sand blasting facility, paint shop, metal fabrication, warehouse, factory and office. It also has fiberglass facility.
'We are self contained and can give quick supply. We do every thing in house, including furniture, ' says Moon.
Last year the company constructed sand blasting facility. It is working on a paint workshop now. 
'We have broken ground for new factory in Ghana, which is opening in September. We also have office in Kabul, Afghanistan,' Moon says.
Red Sea imports 60-70 per cent of the raw materials from the US. Its staff strength is around 300 and additional 100 personnel are in the field for installation jobs.
Its Dubai factory can manufacture 10 units a day, while the one in Saudi can build 15 units a day.
'Industry is doing well because the price of oil is up there is a lot of exploration and drilling,' says Moon.
'Market has been very good. Some refineries and gasification plants are being built. Market will continue to be good. 'Our main markets are west Africa - Chad, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. We are also pursuing projects in Angola. Close to home, Yemen is also a good market. Libya is also good and is opening up. In other areas we do military works - Iraq, Afghanistan. In Sudan we are doing refugee work. Around 98 per cent of our production exported.
'Besides selling we also offer lease option.'