In Commodity News 27/04/2015
United Iron & Steel (UIS) has announced that construction of its new AED1 billion ($272 million) galvanised steel production plant in Abu Dhabi will start by the end of this month.
The planned steel cold rolling factory will produce up to 250,000 tons of galvanised steel per year for customers in Middle East, Europe & Africa, the company said in a statement.
It added that the total investment would be more than AED1 billion which construction being carried out over two phases.
The project is slated for completion by September 2016 and first steel production is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2016.
UIS is a joint venture between Abdul Jalil Group of UAE and SAFID Group, a manufacturer of indoor climate solutions based in Saudi Arabia.
Al Diyar General Contracting Company of UAE has been engaged as the main civil contractor on the project, UIS said while Zamil Steel Corporation has been contracted to provide the steel structure for the factory.
The demand for galvanised steel in the GGC region has grown significantly in recent years, and UIS expects over 50 percent of the factory’s output to be taken up by customers in the region.
The rest of production will be taken up by clients in Europe and Africa.
Sheikh Mohammed Al Rahbani, chairman of UIS, said:”I am delighted that we can now start construction of our new steel factory in Abu Dhabi.”
Souheil Hatoum, general manager, added:”In the next five years we expect regional demand for rolled and coated steel products to double. Currently over 50 percent of the GCC’s annual demand for galvanised steel products is imported so we see that we are filling a major gap in regional the market.”
