Atoun Steel Industry (ASI) has announced it is setting up a steel plant at Yanbu Industrial City on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast.

It will be built in three phases with completion of all phases by the end of 2009, the company said.
In the first phase, which will be completed in the third quarter of 2008, the plant will produce 910,000 tonnes of steel billets of various sizes with a hot rolling mill of capacity 500,000 tonnes doing rebars from 8 to 32 mm, rounds from 14 to 50 mm, squares from 16 to 70 mm, angles from 25 to 55 mm and several other sections.
The second phase, to be completed in the second quarter of 2009, involves the setting up of a gas-based direct reduced iron (DRI) plant of 1.7 million tonnes with hot DRI charging facility into the furnace for steel making.
In the third phase, which will be completed by the end of 2009, facilities for wire rod rolling will be incorporated to substantiate the excess billets.
Siemens VAI will supply all process equipment from the scrap yard to the rolling mill, including a 80 to 100-tonne Ultimate-type electric arc furnace (EAF), a five-strand billet caster equipped with Diamold high-speed casting and Dynaflex oscillation technology, and a long-product rolling milling outfitted with high-performance red-ring rolling-mill stands.
 “The EAF will be designed in such a way so as to enable hot DRI charging in the future. Siemens VAI will also be responsible for the engineering, installation, start-up and commissioning of the new mini-mill,” Atoun said.
It said investment in each of the first two phases will be SR1.6 billion and in the third phase SR600 million. There would be additional investments for securing technology and integrating facilities.
 “The technology to be adopted for manufacture is designed to utilise the resources within the country to a great extent by allowing very economical production and good-quality products,” said Atoun.
It said the production line is aimed at adopting a multi-product range so customers can have a “one-window shopping advantage.”
Atoun Steel was founded by a group of Saudi Arabian investors in response to the continued demand for rebars by the Saudi Arabian construction industry.