Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed) has emerged as the region's largest integrated steel producer with a market base covering Saudi Arabia and 30 other countries globally.

Wholly owned by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), Hadeed was established in 1979 in Jubail Industrial City as the first integrated iron and steel complex in the Saudi Arabia. Since its commissioning in the early 1980s with a small capacity of 850,000 tonnes per year (tpy), the company's production capacity has grown to more than 3.5 million tpy.

Hadeed is a direct reduction (DR) electric arc furnace (EAF)-based plant and its present production constitutes both long and flat products.

Reinforcing bars constitute a major portion of Hadeed's long-product mix. Although the rebars are made in a variety of chemical composition and mechanical properties to cater to wide market requirements in this region, they are mostly made conforming to either ASTM A615 or BS 4449 specifications. High-strength grades (ASTM A615 Grade 60 and BS 4449 Grade 460B) of both the specifications are normally used.

"Concrete reinforcing bars are traditionally produced through the conventional hot rolling process. However, at Hadeed the advanced technology of the bar quenching process is used to produce these bars," a Hadeed spokesman says.

"Various studies conducted by Sabic and Hadeed have revealed that the Hadeed quenched steel rebars inherently have a higher corrosion resistance in concrete," the spokesman says.

Hadeed's long-product facilities include the direct reduction plant, which converts iron ore into sponge iron, and comprises three Midrex modules with a combined capacity in excess of 2 million tpy of sponge iron. It has iron ore-handling facilities that include two ship unloaders and a 13.6 km conveyor belt to carry the ore to an onsite storage yard.

The steel plant converts sponge iron and ferrous scrap into steel billets and has three electric arc furnaces, ladle transfer cars, two ladle furnaces and three six-strand continuous billet casting machines. The casting machines convert the liquid steel into billets with an annual capacity of approximately 2.8 million tonnes.

The rolling mills convert 130 mm billets into finished products with a capacity of more than 2.8 million tpy.

The flat-product complex comprises a direct reduction plant, a steel plant and flat steel product facilities.

The direct reduction plant with an annual capacity of more than 1 million tonnes of sponge iron is based on the HYL3 process with the latest technology available. Sponge (directly reduced) iron produced in this plant is the main feed material for the electric arc furnace.

The steel plant incorporates one 150-tonne ultra high power (UHP) electric arc furnace, a ladle furnace and continuous slab casting facilities with an annual capacity of more than 0.9 million tonnes.

Hadeed produces high-quality flat products to international specifications in accordance with customers' requirements.

Hot rolled steel is produced at Hadeed's ultra-modern facilities and a comprehensive network of computers controls the entire manufacturing process to improve product quality to meet customers' requirements.

Hadeed offers a broad range of hot rolled products in the form of coils, slit coils and plates in pickled and unpickled condition

Its cold rolling mill comprises four high single reversing mills equipped with AGC roll swivelling device, a CVC roll, an axial shifting system and roll bending and multi-zone cooling systems. The mill is fully computerised to roll close dimensional tolerances both of low- and high-strength materials.