ABU DHABI: District cooling firm Tabreed’s Bahrain unit sees a bleak short-term outlook due to a collapsing construction market even as its first permanent cooling plant starts this week, an executive said.
"We will not see our next cooling plant before 2015 or longer. The short-term doesn’t look good, there is a market for the long-term," Brent Andersson told a Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) district cooling conference on Tuesday.
Real estate projects in Bahrain have come to a near standstill after the sector was hit by the financial downturn.
Tabreed Bahrain’s new permanent cooling plant, with an installed capacity of 22,800 TR (refrigerated tones), will be commissioned on Thursday, Andersson said.
The firm, 90 percent owned by the United Arab Emirates’ Tabreed, will provide district cooling services to the World Trade Centre, the Reef Island developments and the Bahrain Financial Harbor.
Prior to this, Tabreed provided cooling through temporary installations.
Bahrain’s Esterad Investment Co owns a 8.95 percent stake while Bin Hindi group owns a 0.75 percent in Tabreed Bahrain.
Its parent firm Tabreed, also known as National Cooling Co, is restructuring $1.47 billion in debt.
