Saudi publisher Al-Jazirah is reconfiguring and relocating a 13-tower press from France to the Gulf as part of a major upgrade project.
In total, 88 Goss Universal single-width press units are affected with completion set for mid this year.
Maker Goss International has been contracted for the project, which will increase production capacity and hybrid flexibility at the Riyadh centre. It sees:
• a 13-tower Universal line – with two folders and 15 reelstands – relocated from north-eastern France to a modified press hall in Riyadh;
• refurbishment and reconfiguration into two lines, one of seven towers and one of six towers, all with shaftless drive controls;
• moving two four-high towers from a 1994 Universal at the site – which will also be upgraded to footprint shaftless – to a newer Universal line there;
• integrating three heatset gas dryers and a ‘bay window’ turner bar arrangement with the press lines, to enable full hybrid production on the publisher’s flagship broadsheet daily Al-Jazirah with a mix of heatset and coldset pages.
When the project is complete, Al Jazirah will have 22 Universal four-high towers, with a web with of 914 mm and a 578mm cut-off plus three Universal folders capable of operating at up to 50,000 cph.
Goss were “the obvious choice” for the project, production manager Nabil Sahl (pictured) says. “We believe they can help us to gain greater visibility for semicommercial print placement, ensuring the daily title fully reflects the level of expectation among readers today and maintains a market leading position.”
Goss customer service manager Stéphane Jaunasse says the company has been been installing heatset-capable presses into Saudi press halls for many years: “Middle Eastern newspapers were years ahead of the global hybrid trend,” he says.
“We’re very excited about this project. It provides an opportunity for us to show what can be achieved by enhancing and reconfiguring presses with the reliability and longevity of the Universal platform.”
Al-Jazirah Corporation publishes 220,000 copies daily of its Arabic flagship newspaper with an average 48 pages per issue. It also distributes three weekly magazines – Telecom and Digital World Magazine, Auto Club Magazine and Cultural Magazine – with the newspaper.