Dubai: Emirates Steel says that demand for steel in major construction and infrastructure projects in the GCC is set to double by 2015.
Speaking at a forum in Abu Dhabi, Saeed Al Romaithi, Emirates Steel's acting CEO, said that Emirates Steel's new heavy sections rolling mill was due to start production early next year to help meet renewed demand.
Al Romaithi said the company will become the leading manufacturer and supplier of structural steel in the Middle East.
"...Structural steel will be essential to the local and regional markets. The growing number of projects in the GCC working on the development of infrastructure, industrial plants, power transmission towers, bridges, seaports and high-rise towers all require the new products we will be able to supply," said Mubarak Al Khaili, Emirates Steel's vice-president of commercial strategy.
Expansion programme
According to Steel Business Briefing, demand for medium and heavy sections in the Middle East is forecast to reach 4.3 million tonnes in 2012, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE being the biggest consumers.
Demand is currently met by imports mainly from China, Korea and Eastern Europe. The GCC's total steel demand is 20 million tons per year, compared with a capacity of 12 million tons.
As part of Emirates Steel's expansion programme the company launched in Nov-ember 2009 the construction of its one million metric tonnes per annum heavy sections rolling mill. The facility will be capable of producing a range of structural steel products including beams and columns, channels, equal angles, unequal angles and sheet piling.
