United Stainless Steel Company (USCO) is now in the third year of production at its $240 million state-of-the-art cold rolling stainless steel manufacturing plant in Bahrain meeting the requirements of a regional market from its 90,000 tonnes per year capacity.

The largest single industrial  direct investment in the kingdom, the USCO plant is delivering high-quality products to the region and helping build an eventual downstream stainless steel manufacturing cluster in the Middle East.

The establishment of USCO is part of the wider strategy of the Gulf Industrial Investment Company (GIIC) which has helped spearhead industrial growth in the iron and steel sectors in the GCC region for several years.

USCO was formed after three years of evaluation and planning by GIIC which began in April 2002 with the strategic objective of establishing a model world-class facility in the Middle East.  The USCO plant utilises the latest cutting-edge technologies, equipment and production processes for stainless steel, which is 100 per cent recyclable, underpinned by best practice environmental standards and quality assurance unrivalled anywhere in the world.

GIIC already operates the Middle East’s only iron ore pelletisation plant in Hidd. GIIC comprises Gulf Investment Corporation, Kuwait; Qatar Steel; National Industries Holding Group, Kuwait; Kuwait Foundry Company, Kuwait; M A Al Kharafi and Sons Company, Kuwait.

The world-scale internationally accredited USCO mill was commissioned in November 2007 then becoming the first stainless steel manufacturer in the region for flat sheet and coiled products.

Exports to Saudi Arabia

Construction began in April 2005 at the prime location of Hidd adjacent to the Khalifa Bin Salman Port, the maritime hub for the northern Gulf, and by December 2006 cold commissioning began at the plant. The first dispatch of finished products was achieved by April 2007 with exports to Saudi Arabia for fabrication and finishing by Armetal, the Riyadh manufacturer of stainless steel pipes, tubes and sheets.  

Rudi Clayton, general manager, commercial and marketing, USCO, is confidently expecting increasing demand from the region and internationally for flat sheets and coil and is looking to build capacity in the first quarter of 2010 despite the tough global economic situation.

The USCO plant is set to attract downstream industries long-term

“We are certainly looking to increase production this year and have been running at about half our capacity in 2009. We are now seeing growth in the industry of around three to four per cent this year in what is a cyclical global market.

In the Middle East, USCO is the only manufacturer operating with huge potential in terms of the traditional applications for stainless steel in the corrosive environment of the region. Longer-term the USCO plant is set to attract downstream industries to benefit from the comparative cost advantages and proximity of the world-scale plant to regional and international markets,” says Clayton. 

In using the most sophisticated equipment and technologies and factoring in the cost advantages inherent from its prime location adjacent to the Khalifa Bin Salman Port and the availability of power and energy, potential to expand the facility and closeness to the Middle East markets, USCO is meeting its strategic objectives.  For 2010, Clayton is looking to enter into new partnerships to deliver steel sheet and coil to fabricators and end-users.

Demand increasing

“We are seeing demand for stainless steel increasing in the Middle East in a range of applications including construction materials and architectural facades through to desalination plants, the food and beverage industry, bottling plants and the oil and gas sector. For architects and designers there are a wide range of applications from flagpoles to balustrades and bus-stops.

There are also increasing demands for the strategic development of a cluster of downstream industries with USCO’s high-quality feedstock of stainless steel being used in a range of industrial applications from automotive to transport. Applications include stainless exhausts and catalytic converters and demand will come from infrastructure projects in the railway sector for the planned rail links across the region,” he continues.

As well as raising brand awareness and developing USCO, Clayton is single-mindedly creating a stainless steel industry from the very beginning for the region and is very much a pathfinder in increasing knowledge of the products and applications from stainless steel. Clayton has a degree in metallurgy and is a master in business administration with a long career and experience in the steel and specialty metals sector for delivering quality and developing a strong market presence.

“Our challenge is to make our name known in the market with the inherent advantages of manufacturing in the region from shorter lead times, savings on transport and shipment and also our local relationships with the end-users through partnerships and close consultation. Exports in the Gulf are increasing with 70 per cent delivered outside of Bahrain of which about 30 per cent are in the GCC,” he adds.

Through its proximity to the port, USCO has concluded special arrangements with APM Terminals for quicker shipment turnarounds to its increasing client base of partners and stockists. In addition to the groundbreaking partnership with Armetal, USCO is developing partnerships across the region with fabricators through a highly selective consultative process. USCO products are already delivered to the GCC region as well as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
 
The Middle East is one of the world’s key markets for stainless steel and well set for increased demand backed by increasing applications in the downstream sector as the industrial base of the region matures and provides more value-added products in the supply chain for a host of commercial applications as well as extensive applications in the construction sector from handrails to cladding and engineered structures.

“Stainless steel products are corrosion-resistant, enjoy low maintenance costs and have aesthetic properties in a variety of architectural and industrial applications of different grades and surface finishes. From ornamental panels to fixtures and furniture, building facades to flagpoles, the variety of applications is ever increasing according to the life-cycle of the products,” Clayton adds.

As a model plant, due emphasis has been placed on environmental protection of the internal processes as well as the avoidance of any external contaminants such as wind-blown sand entering the facility. Massive screening of the plant includes specialist fences with high density fabrics to avoid sand ingress and the actual manufacturing facility is air-tight. All the various chemicals and reagents are recycled internally to avoid any contamination to the land, sea or air.

Manufacturing process

The manufacturing process at USCO begins with the receipt of black hot band coils at the plant at 3 mm, 4 mm and 5 mm gauges. The black hot band coils are supplied in two widths - 1,030 mm and 1,280 mm. The average weights are 18 tonnes for the 1,030 mm wide coils and 22 tonnes for the 1,280 mm wide coils. The black hot band coils are rolled by USCO’s supplier on a hot rolling mill.

After being rolled in the hot rolling mill the hot strip is coiled into a roll that can be up to one kilometer long. During the hot rolling process the strip becomes hard and the surface is covered in a layer of black oxide.

The first operation at USCO is to soften the strip and to remove the oxide scale from its surface on an annealing and pickling line. Annealing takes place in a gas-fired furnace at approximately 1,200°C. This is done to ensure that the strip is in the correct condition for cold rolling. The next step is to remove the scale.

The strip passes through a mechanical scale removal process before entering the pickling section. In the pickling section the strip surface is treated first in an electrochemical cell to remove the scale before being treated in a bath of mixed hydrofluoric and nitric acid to prepare the surface for cold rolling.

The acids and chemicals circulate in a closed system, which ensures that they do not have a harmful influence on the environment. The strip is then rinsed in water and dried with heated air before being coiled up again. After this, the coil proceeds to the cold rolling mill.

Clayton: looking to enter new partnerships to deliver steel sheet and coil

During cold rolling the strip is squeezed between small rolls whilst being pulled backwards and forwards between coilers located on either side of the mill. Rolling is carried out under very high load conditions. During cold rolling the strip remains at the “hot rolled” width. The finished thickness of the strip ranges between 0.40 mm and 2.00 mm.

During the cold rolling process the strip becomes very hard. After cold rolling, it is annealed for a second time to soften the strip and to achieve the desired grain size and mechanical properties.

Pickling of the strip follows to remove oxide from the surface created during annealing in the furnace. This is done again using a mixture of hydroflouric and nitric acid. The strip is then rinsed with water and obtains a matt, light grey surface. After pickling and rinsing with water, the strip passes through an in-line skin pass mill that creates a 2B finish on the surface of the strip.

After the strip has passed through the skin pass mill, the strip is inspected before being recoiled.

USCO has the ability to produce No 3 and No 4 polished finish by passing the strip through a coil polishing line. The No 3 finished is achieved by polishing with 180 grit, the No 4 finish is achieved by polishing with 240 grit.

The slitting line takes full coils at feedstock weights and widths and can produce large trimmed coils at standard widths of 1,000 mm, 1,219 mm or 1,250 mm, or narrow widths to a minimum of 30 mm.

The cut to length line takes full coils at feedstock weights and widths and after the strip is edge trimmed it is flattened in a precision leveling machine before cutting into sheets that can range between 1 and 6 m in length. To protect the finished coils and sheets during transportation and handling, packaging is applied on both the cut to length and slitting lines.

Focus on local employment

USCO is committed to local employment and best practices in the plant and has achieved 85 per cent Bahrainisation out of a work force of 121. The plant works shifts and USCO has invested in training and career development with operational and business practices according to exacting safety, health and environmental standards. Emphasis is placed on operational excellence and on-the-job training and eventually, as other phases of the plant are commissioned, there will be about 200 plus employees.

“One of our challenges is to ensure that the stainless steel value proposition enters the consciousness of all the various sectors from construction to downstream industries. Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining and low maintenance and life-cycle costs makes it an ideal base material for an ever increasing range of applications both decorative and structural. By the last quarter of 2010, USCO expects to be running at capacity to meet this growing demand,” concludes Clayton.