Emirates Steel’s heavy sections rolling mill, which is due to be operational early next year, will meet to a large extent growing demand for those products in the Middle East, the company said at a conference it held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

“Once up and running, our heavy sections rolling mill will establish the company as the leading manufacturer and supplier of structural steel in the Middle East region and a centre of excellence for the effective use of metal in construction,” engineer Saeed G Al Romaithi, Emirates Steel’s acting CEO, told the audience at the seminar, the first of several it will be holding in the GCC region before the end of this year. Around 100 contractors, consultants, fabricators and developers were present.

“By offering a wide range of structural products, the mill will be able to meet your differing structural steel needs and maximise their design effectiveness. We have made a significant investment in structural steel manufacturing technology, which will put our heavy sections mill amongst the most advanced in the world,” he added.

Mubarak Al Khaili, Emirates Steel’s VP of commercial strategy: “Our structural steel will be essential to the local and regional markets. The growing number of projects in the GCC region working on the development of infrastructure, industrial plants, power transmission towers, bridges, sea ports and high rise towers all require the new products we will be able to supply.”

These construction projects will demand a large tonnage of heavy sections. According to Steel Business Briefing, demand for medium and heavy sections in the Middle East is forecast to reach 4.3 million tonnes in 2012, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE being the biggest consumers. Demand is currently met by imports mainly from China, Korea and Eastern Europe. The GCC’s total steel demand is 20 million tonnes per year, compared to a capacity of 12 million tonnes per year.

Upcoming products
The conference highlighted Emirates Steel’s new heavy sections rolling mill, due to start production in early 2012. As part of Emirates Steel’s phased expansion programme, the company launched in November 2009 the construction of this one million tonnes per annum heavy sections rolling mill. The facility can produce a broad range of structural steel products, including beams and columns, channels, equal angles, unequal angles, and sheet piling. The conference provided the platform to announce Emirates Steel’s upcoming heavy sections products.

The consumption of sections in the Mena region excluding Turkey will grow from 7.02 million tonnes in 2011 to 7.6 million tonnes in the next year to 8.94 million tonnes in 2015.

Emirates Steel is a direct subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation (Adbic) which is, in turn, wholly-owned by the General Holding Company (GHC). Strategically located in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD), some 35 km away from the heart of the city of Abu Dhabi, Emirates Steel is the only integrated steel plant in the UAE and utilises the latest rolling mill technology to produce reinforcing bar and wire rod.

Established in 2001, Emirates Steel is currently implementing a comprehensive business development plan. Once complete, the company will be one of the largest and most competitive steel producers in the GCC region. It is evolving from its roots of being a simple and relatively low value-added processor of steel into a sophisticated, highly productive manufacturing business with a high added value business model. Furthermore, it will be among the few regional steel producers with a diversified product range including rebar in both straight and coil form, wire rod, sections, plate, seamless pipe, longitudinally welded pipe, hot rolled coil and semi-finished products such as billets and direct reduced iron.