Danube Building Materials, a leader in the construction, building materials, and shop-fitting industry, plans to invest Dh100 million ($27.2 million) in the UAE steel industry this year, a move which is set to render steel as one of the largest segments of its business.

This is in line with the company’s aim to leverage the burgeoning demand within the UAE construction sector, which currently expends 5 million tonnes of steel products on an annual basis, according to a company official.
“In addition to the ever-increasing number of property developments, the local steel market has been witnessing impressive growth due to the widespread availability of energy in the UAE to support the manufacturing of steel products, prompting the company to capitalise on the ideal business prospects to expand its own range of products,” says Rizwan Sajan, chairman, Danube Building Materials.
Laying the pillar for important industries as well as the base for manufacturing activities, the flourishing steel industry in the UAE mirrors the country’s rapid development in the economic and industrial sectors. The UAE has been a significant contributor to the overall development of the GCC region’s steel trade, which currently includes 45 working factories with a total value of $2.8 billion (Dh10.3 billion) and a workforce of more than 11,000 workers. The potency of the local market has provided a steady supply of steel to sustain industries that manufacture steel-based products in the region. These industries have grown to comprise 136,000 employees working in 1,725 factories in 2005 and attracting $6.5 billion worth of investments.
“The building blocks of the UAE’s economic development are the significant core industrial and infrastructure sectors such as the steel industry, which creates an intersectional relationship between traders, manufacturers and suppliers,” says Sajan. “Fuelled by the continuous increase in the demand for steel products, both long and flat products, and the presence of an extremely diversified business network in the UAE and across the GCC, we have made a strategic decision to dedicate more focus to this particular segment in an attempt to fully leverage the surging demand for steel and steel-based products in the country. Through this movement towards supporting an important model for the development levels of societies, we are looking forward to increasing our contribution in upgrading the steel industry, thereby reiterating the UAE’s standing as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.”
Danube’s foray into the steel industry will involve large-scale imports of steel products from Turkey, China, Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which will then be processed as per customer requirements. Maintaining a high level of quality across all its products, the Dh1 billion company is currently in the process of initial market testing to ensure the smooth delivery of its products to customers upon the launch of its full-fledged operations next year.
“Our dedication towards supplying the huge demand for steel products goes beyond merely satisfying market volume requirements. More importantly, we are keen on delivering steel products of outstanding quality in a bid to maintain the strong reputation we have built up in the market,” says Sajan.
“This is certainly an exciting time for us at Danube, as we foresee a tremendous amount of effort being exerted for this phase of our continuous expansion, which we are certain, will be rewarded in the future,” he concludes.
Danube is one of the largest building materials suppliers in the UAE and the region with an extensive portfolio of over 10,000 products ranging from MDF, plywood, timber, laminates and veneers to sanitary fittings, hardware, ironmongery, steel, aluminium and glass among other things. In 2004, the company began its operations in Jebel Ali with a 19,000 sq m warehouse cum office, which serves as its regional hub and caters to booming markets in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and India.