Aden: A Yemeni industrial firm based in Aden's free-trade zone plans to increase steel output by a factor of 15 to 1.5 million tonnes in the next decade in the impoverished nation, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
The Arab Iron and Steel Corporation (AISCO) will spend $1.6 billion (Dh5.87 billion) to turn a plant started in 2005 that now sells 100,000 tonnes domestically into a regional exporter that makes its own power, Managing Director Ravinder Singh said in an interview.
"This will be a qualitative and quantitative change in steel production," Singh said.
He added that the plant would use local liquefied natural gas (LNG) and import iron ore from India or South Africa instead of relying on local scrap.
Singh said a conventional fuel power plant on site will be expanded and supplied with fuel by tapping marginal gas fields that are not connected to a $4.5 billion LNG export operation in Yemen.
