Business | Investment
RAK Steel aims to have 750,000 tonne capacity mill
RAK Steel, a steel manufacturing facility, plans to increase its annual deformed steel reinforcement bars capacity by 50 per cent by the end of this year to 750,000 tonnes.
- By Suzanne Fenton, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:36 June 3, 2009
Dubai: RAK Steel, a steel manufacturing facility, plans to increase its annual deformed steel reinforcement bars capacity by 50 per cent by the end of this year to 750,000 tonnes.
The plant currently has a capacity of 500,000 tonnes of deformed steel reinforcement bars.
The boost in production capacity is also expected to increase RAK Steel's presence in the market as it is already the second largest producer of steel rebars in the UAE.
"The local capacity is still not enough to cater to the local demand. We're still importing from Turkey and other places," Ajay Aggarwal, chief executive of RAK Steel, told Gulf News.
RAK Steel has received a marked increase in demand and therefore had to increase capacity.
"There has been a gradual resurgence in construction activities across the UAE buoyed by the continued growth in tourism and residential projects in all emirates," Aggarwal said.
Aggarwal estimates that the local construction market will return to levels seen prior to 2008, and then maintain a stable growth trend of around five per cent.
There are also plans to make it an integrated steel mill in the next two or three years and has already received preliminary planning for this.
"We're setting it up and it will have a melt-shop and air plant and so on. To the company, it means we can be more cost-competitive and our dependence on outside raw materials will be reduced. The more raw materials you produce yourself, the more total costs will go down," said Aggarwal.
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