Business | General
Abu Dhabi signs deal with Italian firm to boost capacity of ESI
The Abu Dhabi government-owned General Holding Corporation on Monday signed an agreement with Italian construction company Danielito to boost installed capacity of Emirates Steel Industries.
- By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:31 February 4, 2008
Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi government-owned General Holding Corporation on Monday signed an agreement with Italian construction company Danielito to boost installed capacity of Emirates Steel Industries.
Under the agreement, the Italian company will execute a Dh3.68 billion, phase two expansion project of ESI and increase its capacity to three million metric tonnes per year by the first quarter of 2011.
The agreement was signed by Shaikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Court of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Chairman of ZonesCorp, on behalf of General Holding Corporation.
General Holding Corporation owns the Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation, which, in turn, owns the ESI.
"It's a pay-by-progress agreement. When complete, it will be the biggest integrated single steel factory in the GCC," James White, chief executive officer of ESI, told Gulf News on the sidelines of the signing ceremony in Abu Dhabi Industrial City (ICAD-I), in Musaffah.
"Upon completion, we will reach the top quartile in the world in terms of quality and efficiency."
White said the phase-I of the steel plant is currently 83 per cent complete. Natural gas is being used as feedstock for processing the steel at the plant, while electricity is used to melt the steel, he added.
"Our capacity will go up to 2 million tonnes per year in the next 12 months," White said, adding that this year ESI plans to process 1.3 million tonnes of finished products as compared with 750,000 tonnes in 2007.
"Today, we make reinforcing bars for construction. This year, we are going to start making steel wire rods. The contract awarded today is to make steel beams for buildings and bridges," said White.
He said that until now, close to $1.2 billion has been invested in the manufacturing facility.
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