Adnan Al Mansour, president of Zamil Steel, is one of Saudi Arabia’s leading technocrats and today oversees one of the kingdom’s most successful industrial enterprises.

Prior to joining Zamil Steel in 2003 Al Mansour had worked with SCECO (currently known as Saudi Electricity Company – SEC) for 25 years, rising to the position of VP corporate affairs. Graduating from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals in Dhahran with a degree in civil engineering in 1979, his professional career training has included executive programmes at Stamford in the US and Ashridge in the UK. His professional affiliations include the presidency of the Dhahran Materials Society as well as VP of the Saudi Arabian Quality Council and the Arabian Human Resources Society.
Looking at Zamil Steel’s leading position as one of the kingdom’s industrial pioneers, Al Mansour credits Zamil Industrial’s managing director, strategic planning, for the company’s early vision. “Zamil Steel has been fortunate to have had a visionary such as Khalid Zamil as our leader and it is his vision which has distinguished Zamil Steel not only from other companies within the group but also from other companies in Saudi Arabia,” said Al Mansour. “The basic reason for our success was putting the customer first in everything we do and retain the loyalty of repeat customers, which means while we are global we can still be closer to our customers.”
This concept has been crystalised into a formula for Zamil Steel. Wherever there is a boom which is in anyway related to construction, the company will seek to open an office. “If we see a requirement for steel whether it is for power plants, buildings, factories or transmission lines, we will look at opening an office. Later we can look at the justification in opening a factory,” said Al Mansour.
Zamil Steel is one of four main business sectors of Zamil Industrial, a publicly traded stock company in Saudi Arabia, and is the flagship with Zamil Air Conditioners, Zamil Glass Industries and Arabian Fiberglass Insulation Company (Afico) being the other three business sectors.
“Zamil Steel, which was established in 1977 as a company for the design, manufacture and supply of preengineered steel buildings (PEBs), is celebrating its 30 years of glorious journey this year and we are extremely proud to say that in the past three decades it has grown in stature as a global company, trying to spread its wings further wide,” said Al Mansour.
Today Zamil Steel has the following four distinct divisions: the PEB Division, the Structural Steel and Process Equipment Division and the Towers & Galvanising Division (all of which are wholly owned by Zamil Industrial) and Canam Asia Ltd (a joint venture with Canam Group of Canada).
“In 1996 our cumulative annual production reached 100,000 tonnes and we were convinced that if Zamil Steel had to grow further we needed to go global by opening factories in strategically important locations,” said Al Mansour.
“Zamil Steel decided to set up factories for the production of pre-engineered steel buildings in Hanoi (Vietnam) and Cairo (Egypt). These two factories became operational in 1999. In end-2003 it introduced Strategic Management and Balanced Scorecard initiatives at Zamil Steel.
“Through these initiatives we took steps to further widen our revenue streams and launched our five-year Corporate Plan with the aim of raising our yearly total revenues to SR2 billion ($534 million) by the end of fiscal 2008 from SR689 million in fiscal 2003. Zamil Steel plans to reach SR5 billion over the next five years.”
 These new initiatives included setting up new manufacturing facilities in strategically important locations in addition to capacity addition in existing facilities. The company has now finished with the work of capacity addition in its Structural Steel factory, Towers & Galvanising factory and Egypt factory. As far as the work of setting up of new manufacturing facilities is concerned, its new factories (PEB and Canam Asia) in Ras AIKhaimah were officially inaugurated on April 10, 2007 and these factories are gradually moving up to their installed production capacities. While it has also finished work on its new sandwich panel factory in the 2nd Industrial Estate of Dammam city, construction is progressing well on its PEB factory in Pune (India), T&G factory in Ras Al Khaimah and PEB factory in Ho Chi Minh City. All of these factories will be commissioned before the end of this year.
 “Our vision is still to be closer to the customer and we are now looking at possible production facilities in Eastern Europe,” said Al Mansour.
In 2006 Zamil Steel’s cumulative production exceeded 310,000 tonnes, an increase of almost 210 per cent during the last four years.
Capacity additions achieved during the past three years reached 35 per cent for Saudi PEB Division, 140 per cent for ZS Egypt, and 43 per cent for ZS Vietnam - Hanoi. Other divisions achieved capacity expansions of over 75 per cent for the Structural Steel Division, and 100 per cent for the Towers Division.
Zamil Steel has a long list of local and international customers including some of the largest manufacturers and contractors. Some of them are: Toyota, Honda, Nestle, Coca Cola, Proctor and Gamble, Fuji, Fijutsu, BP, Chevron, Saudi Aramco, the Royal Commission, AlHokair, JGC, IHI, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Daewoo, Hyundai, LG, Bechtel, Chiyoda Corporation, Toyo Engineering, Technip, Techint, Snamprogetti, ABB, SEC, STC, Etihad Etisalat and Emirates Electrical.
Al Mansour believes that his main contribution to the group revolves around two key issues - strategic planning and human resources. With over 3,000 staff worldwide, he is determined to introduce clear career plans based on a systematic approach. “The best of Zamil Steel lies within our people who are the future of the company. We are developing criteria and create our own training curriculum linked to our competency requirements over the years,” said Al Mansour. “Everyone can buy the same machines and materials but it is ‘people’ who make the difference. Unless we re-invest in human resources we will not stand out from our competitors.”
Looking at the last 30 years of Zamil Steel, Al Mansour says: “Thirty years is an achievement and tells us something. The organisation is still young as companies like people, mature at 40. We are still building our company and are committed to being a global player. No other steel company provides as comprehensive a service. We are pioneers.”
Whilst Zamil Steel has set its sights on establishing operations across the world, the company’s new Ras Al Khaimah facility is aimed at bolstering its Saudi Arabia base. “The new facility brings us closer to our customers in the UAE and provides a complementary and strategically positioned facility close to home,” said Al Mansour.