BAHRAIN-BASED United Steel Company (SULB) is to develop a $1.2 billion steel plant which, once operational, will be the region’s first fully integrated beams and structural sections producer.

United Steel is a joint venture between Gulf United Steel Holding Company (Foulath), a leading steel investment vehicle based in Bahrain and Japan’s Yamato Kogyo Company, a leading global beams and structural sections producer.
The company has awarded engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the massive plant to two consortiums – one comprising Kobe Steel of Japan and Midrex of the US and the other having SMS Meer and SMS Concast of Germany and Samsung Engineering on board. The construction will begin in the second half of this year.
Commenting on the award of the contracts, Khalid Al Qadeeri, chairman and managing director of SULB, said: “This is the final milestone to implementing the SULB project and we are pleased to have these world-leading industrial engineering and construction companies on board. The consortiums will implement SULB’s planned facilities, which include a direct reduction iron plant (DRI plant) with a nameplate capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year (tpy), which is capable of producing 1.8 million tpy, and a melt shop (MS) and heavy section rolling mill (HSM) with nameplate capacity of 0.8 mtpy, which is capable of producing 1.0 million tpy. Kobe Steel/Midrex will undertake construction of the DRI plant while SMS Meer, SMS Concast and Samsung will develop the MS and HSM facilities. The plant will begin commercial operations and the production of medium and heavy beams and structural sections by the second half of 2012.
Al Qadeeri said: “We are committed to working with world-class partners on this path-breaking project, which will see the further development of the Middle East’s steel industry. With the addition of SULB to Foulath’s existing complex, we are also creating the world’s first fully integrated steel production facility with manufacturing capability extending from pelletising to final product.”
“This will, in turn, allow the company to be the lowest cost producer of its kind in the world and ensure sustained competitive advantage,” he noted.
According to Al Qadeeri, SULB will replace 14 per cent of the current imports of medium and heavy beams and structural sections into the Middle East markets once it becomes fully operational.
SULB’s facilities are being established within Foulath’s existing 1.3 million sq m steel production complex located in Hidd Industrial Area in Bahrain. It will be situated adjacent to Gulf Industrial Investment Company’s (GIIC) pelletising plants and United Stainless Steel Company’s cold-rolled mill, both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Foulath.