Oakland Tribune July 19, 2003
REMco sand better than real thing
By Marc Albert, BUSINESS WRITER
WHEN CONTRACTORS needed sand to extend a concrete air base runway in Oman they went halfway around the world to a Livermore maker of rock crushing equipment. That may sound strange, but Livermore-based REMco's machine turns rock into sand that is perfect for making concrete.
"If you use sand that is all one size, the concrete is not very strong," explained Damian Rodriguez, president of REMco, or Rock Engineered Machinery Co.
Sand for concrete must meet certain specifications, according to Ryan Puckett, a spokesman for the Portland Cement Association, an industry trade group. Beach and desert sand may contain sulfates or chlorides that corrode steel reinforcing bars.
So Salem Mohiyadin Bin Saif & Brothers Trading & Contracting Co. in the Persian Gulf Sultanate of Oman turned to REMco for machinery to make sand on an island off the coast of a desert nation. REMco's crusher, the SandMax 1200-ST/AR, costs roughly $250,000 and is capable of processing 850 tons in an hour.
Rodriguez estimated that the project would require up to 500,000 tons of sand in the first year.
The project is part of a major reshuffle of U.S. military forces in the Persian Gulf and a broadening of markets for a Livermore firm once reliant on domestic customers.
The U.S. military is leaving Saudi Arabia after a string of terrorist attacks there. In 1996, 19 Americans were killed in a truck bombing of a U.S. barracks in Dhahran. A 1995 attack on a training center in Riyadh killed seven. A series of coordinated car bombings killed 20 and injured 200 in May.
Islamic extremists, including Osama bin-Laden, have demanded that U.S. forces leave Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's two holiest sites.
A Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said roughly 4,500 U.S. troops left Saudi Arabia in recent months, leaving about 500. Most were redeployed to Qatar.
It is unclear who is ultimately paying for the Oman air base upgrade.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "it's a sensitive issue, most reporters who are aware of it don't cover it."
According to globalsecurity.org, "In March 2002, Vice President (Dick) Cheney toured the air base on Oman's Masirah Island. Neither the United States nor Oman acknowledges U.S. use of the base, but it is an open secret in the region that it has been used for bombing runs to Afghanistan."
Omani military facilities can be used by the U.S. at the permission of Oman's potentate, His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
Back in Livermore, Rodriguez said he has had to widen his customer base.
"It comes down to this, if you go back to the boom years in California the '70s, '80s and even the '90s, there was a lot of road building here," he said. "In those years California was the biggest market in the world."
Much of that has changed. "There's a shift taking place," he Rodriguez said. "The infrastructure in the U.S. is pretty much built, but many emerging countries want to be like the U.S., and one of the first things they want to do is build highways."
Luckily for Rodriguez and the 25 employees at the 20-year-old company, highways need a lot of concrete. And all that concrete has to be made from an awful lot of sand.
Rodriguez said the firm has inked a deal to sell machinery in India. China and Latin America are other potential markets.
"Until you have a solid road system you can't have a lot of development," he said.
Copyright © 2003 Oakland Tribune
