Hadeed, the Saudi Iron and Steel Company, is embarking on an expansion to raise the capacity of its flat and long products facilities following market surveys indicating there will be significant increases in future demand.

The plan, approved by Hadeed and its owner, Sabic, is to increase production of flat rolled products from about 900,000 tonnes per year (tpy) to about 1.2 million tpy and eventually to 2 million tpy.

In the long products category, Hadeed has decided to build a new rebar/wire rod mill with a capacity of 500,000 tpy, against the current capacity of 700,000 tpy. The new mill, to be installed alongside the existing long products mills, will be ready during the first quarter of 2006. At present the long products facililties have a capacity of 2.8 million tpy including reinforcing bars, wire rods and light sections.

“Hadeed’s future expansion plans aim to enhance both quantity and quality in order to offer better products to our customers and meet the demand of local and international markets,” a company spokesman said.
The increase in the production of flat products incorporate three stages. Stage 1 calls for a steel plant vacuum degasser plant, Stage 2 calls for enhancing the Hot Strip Mill (HSM) (completion by the beginning of 2005) to increase production to 2 milion tpy and Stage 3 calls for complete integrations.

These integrations comprise the following: installation of a new direct reduction plant, Module E, capacity of more than 1 million tpy, planned for completion during the first quarter of 2006; the installation of a second electric arc furnace, a second ladle furnace and a second continuous casting machine, all planned for completion by the first quarter of 2006; installation of a colour-coating line for the cold mill complex with a tentative capacity of 150,000 tpy to 200,000 tpy to coat cold and galvanised products produced in the cold mill complex (completion by the end of 2005) and installation of a Skin Pass Mill in the galvanising line to improve the surface quality and elongation of the galvanised strip (to be completed during July 2005).

The Stage 1 vacuum degasser system is planned to enable the production of higher quality steel grades.
Currently the steel plant produces approximately 900,000 tpy of liquid steel. The liquid steel is produced in a single 150 tonne (tap weight) electric arc furnace and then transferred for further treatment to a secondary metallurgical ladle furnace, prior to being cast into slabs in a single strand continuous caster.

“The new vacuum degasser system will initially be used mainly to process ‘sour’ gas API pipe grades for the gas and oil industries. However Hadeed intends to eventually sell hot band strips for export. Therefore, the system will have the flexibility to produce automotive ultra-low carbon steel grades,” the company spokesman said.

The degasser system is designed, as in the first stage, to treat approximately 500,000 tpy out of the total steel plant liquid steel production. However, the design capability of the plant is to treat over 1 million tpy.
Along with the initial processing of  ‘sour’ gas API pipe grades, it will also process a small quantity of deep drawing quality grades, the spokesman said.

The Stage 2 enhancement of the Hot Strip Mill includes having a second reheat furnace, a sixth finishing stand to allow production of strip gauges below 1.5mm, installation of a Hot Skin Pass Mill to enable strip quality corrections to be made, an area for a second downcoiler and provision for extending utility and auxiliary systems
The second reheat furnace will be installed beside the existing furnace at the upstream side, and be of a similar type. The furnace capacity might also be improved during the detailed engineering stage depending on the available space and process requirements.

The second downcoiler will be of stationary type installed downstream of downcoiler No 1. It will have a similar design to the existing one with certain improvements. The new coiler will increase the capability of the Hot Strip Mill to two coils at approximately the same time.

The sixth finishing stand (quality enhancement) will be installed downstream of finishing stand No. 5, and will be similar in design to the existing ones. The sixth stand will increase the capability of the Hot Strip Mill to allow production of 1.5mm coil thickness, or even less.

Other auxiliary line equipment required for Stage 2 includes a profile gauge at the reversing rougher; an on-line strip surface inspection facility, possibly located upstream of downcoiler No.1; on-line coil sampling and strapping facilities, possibly located downstream of the downcoilers within the coil transfer route.

Hadeed is the first integrated iron and steel complex in Saudi Arabia and it came on stream in 1983 with an original designed capacity of 800,000 tpy.  Through technical enhancements and expansions, its annual capacity increased to about 2.8 million tpy of long products such as reinforcing bars, wire rods and light sections and to around 900,000 tpy of flat products. The company received the ISO 9002 certification in 1994. Hadeed products reach more than 34 countries including the GCC and other Arab states.