Business | Investment
ETA Star will invest Dh550m in Ras Al Khaimah cement plant
ETA Star Group, a property developer and construction company, will be investing $150 million (Dh550 million) in a new cement plant in Ras Al Khaimah under the company called Star Cement.
- By Nadia Saleem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:29 July 11, 2008
Dubai: ETA Star Group, a property developer and construction company, will be investing $150 million (Dh550 million) in a new cement plant in Ras Al Khaimah under the company called Star Cement, top company official told Gulf News on Wednesday.
Hamed Salahuddin, managing director of ETA Star Group said, the new plant, commissioned for last quarter of this year, will add two million tonnes of production capacity to their existing 3.5 million tonnes. "We are pushing ourselves in the direction of manufacturing," Salahuddin said.
The company is also investing heavily in steel manufacturing. With a steel rolling mill in place, the company is looking to back it with a steel mill shop, set to be located somewhere in Abu Dhabi.
"Currently, we are looking for a location," he said, adding that their total production will reach about 800,000 tonnes of billets and 400,000 tonnes of rolled steel products.
High returns
"A total of $170 million is being invested in the combined steel projects," Salahuddin said. The steel project will take about a year and half to be completed.
The group's shipping and trading arms are also enjoying high returns and will soon witness expansions.
"This is a growing business for us, because it is global," Salahuddin said. "With the growth in India and China our volume of trading and shipping has increased."
Salahuddin said the company is "looking to invest at least $2 to 2.5 billion in the next 5 to 7 years in the shipping."
Doubling their capacity in the past three years, today the company is at a combined volume of 30 million tones.
Supporting this growth, the company is also adding more vessels to their fleet of dry bulk ships and liquid carriers.
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