The UAE's Jamal Al Ghurair Group plans to build the country's first gypsum plaster board factory.

The plant, located in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi,  will supply products to the construction sector.

Al Ghurair is also building a factory at the same site to make porcelain tiles, said a Gulf News report.

The two facilities, Gyp-semna Company and Porcellan Company, cover one million square metres and will be ready in mid-2008.

The group already operates the Gulf's biggest sugar refinery in Jebel Ali.

The gypsum factory will have a capacity to make 50 million sq m of plaster board, used mostly in interior drywalls, and create 150 new jobs.

Demand for gypsum board has been growing between 20 and 25 per cent per year for the last four to five years, the company said.

Porcellan will have the capacity to make 18 million sq m of tiles per year in the first phase and will eventually be expanded by similar capacity. The facility will employ more than 600 people, the newspaper said.

Demand for porcelain tiles has been growing nearly 10 per cent annually in the last five years.

Raw materials for the plants will be sourced from India, Pakistan, Iran and the UAE, the report said.