Viper announce £400,000 Middle East contracts

A Coalisland-based manufacturer of screening and recycling machinery has announced it has won initial contracts worth £400,000 from Qatar.

Viper International revealed the news following an Invest Northern Ireland trade mission to the Arabian Gulf region.

Four Viper Discovery and Dig-A-Screen machines have been ordered by a Qatar company currently developing a gas pipeline in Qatar and will be used to screen and recycle sand and other materials.

The company visited Qatar, which has the world’s single biggest gas field, as part of the mission to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in October.

Commenting on the deals, Harry McCourt, Viper International’s Managing Director, said: “We used the mission to launch the Viper Discovery and Dig-A-Screen machines in the Middle East marketplace. It’s a unique machine that we developed with assistance from Invest NI’s Compete programme for R&D over a period of 18 months.

“Among its advantages for operators is flexibility and portability. It’s a track-mounted vehicle that features advanced electronics which enable operators to control the vehicle from a distance. It also means the machine can be moved easily to any number of locations and is therefore an extremely cost-effective solution for screening and recycling operations. This makes it ideal for projects such as pipelines and roads.

“The machine also attracted considerable interest in Dubai and contracts currently being negotiated could push the business from this region beyond the £2 million mark in the near future,” he added.

Viper International currently employs 65 people in the in-house design and manufacture of mobile and static machinery for the quarrying, recycling and land reclamation industries worldwide.

Formed in 1988, the company also exports equipment to customers in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

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