WITH units built to well-proven designs to operate efficiently in the scorching heat of the region, Steelfields’ concrete plant have found wide acceptance from many of the leading readymix producers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

This comes amid the fact that the number of readymix operations is growing throughout the GCC and wider Middle East region. The region has been an ultra-successful export market for the company since the early 1970s and continues to be so today with the establishment of manufacturing partnerships in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

“Steelfields is able to offer an extensive range of optional features to meet almost any customer or batching requirements, whilst offering the possibility of adapting existing designs or producing custom-tailored options on demand,” says a spokesman for the company.
The demand for units can be judged from the fact that, despite the ongoing global economic crisis, Steelfields recently secured two further orders for its successful SM 60 range of semi-mobile/compact plant. Both plants were sold to the Saudi Binladin Group in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The plants were dispatched from the factory in the UK and are currently being assembled by local staff under close supervision from a factory technician.
“Each plant is fitted with a six-compartment aggregate storage bin, radial feed conveyor, ground loading hopper and a 3-cu-m high-speed ‘turbo’ pan mixer with two truckmixer loading points. A total of 1,600 tonnes of cement storage is available for both the plants. The silos were supplied and fabricated by the company’s Saudi partner utilising UK-sourced components for dust control and aeration,” says the spokesman.

Both plants and silos comply with all relevant UK and European legislation, including the provision of guarding, safety interlock systems and correct access provisions to meet statutory regulations, he adds.
Steelfields manufactures a wide range of products, including concrete batching and mixing plant (mobile and conventional designs); cement/powder storage silos (mobile, horizontal and vertical designs); concrete mixers (pan, twin-shaft paddle, single-shaft paddle, drum and planetary type); automatic batch control systems plus moisture probes; wet concrete reclaim systems; silt-water processing systems; aggregate cooling systems; hot water systems; and water chillers.
Apart from these, the company also came up with a solution to offer a realistic, cost-effective alternative to conventional ice plant. In an exclusive marketing agreement signed with specialist design engineering company Infraserv OHG, Steelfields introduced its Air-Blast System into the region two years ago at The Big 5 show.
The complete system is delivered to site in two ISO-plated shipping containers, housing the air-blast unit and water chiller, although customers can supply their own water chiller, if required. A range of specially-developed nozzles are available for coarse stone and sand storage compartments.

“The system can also be combined with existing ice systems as a method of producing a lower temperature concrete whilst reducing the amount of ice used per batch,” the spokesman explains. “This allows maximising ice storage without needing to buy-in extra ice during peak demand for concrete in the hot, summer months of production. For commercial concrete producers, the Air-Blast System offers the added advantage of producing lower concrete temperatures even when operating in high ambient temperatures as well as temperature-controlled concrete without impacting on the water/cement ratio due to a high dosage addition of ice.”
The system’s design principle targets aggregate and sand as the largest mix constituent within the concrete batch design. The addition of ice is limited as a percentage of the batch water volume. Current applications include both static and mobile readymix concrete plants as well as large construction sites and dam projects.
Steelfields was established as a family company in 1956 and has grown to become the UK’s leading manufacturer and exporter of concrete batching plant with over 1,800 successful installations operating in more than 55 countries. Its equipment can be found in Europe, South America, the Caribbean, South East Asia and Australia – right from Antigua through to Vietnam.
Its concrete plant can be found in many aspects of concrete production, including readymix concrete, site-batched concrete, precast concrete products and wet mortar production.
Its plant have proven popular with many leading readymix producers with previous units sold to the Cemex Group, Lafarge UK, Anglo American Group, Hanson (part of the Heidelberg Cement Group) as well as a host of independent commercial concrete producers in Europe, the Middle East, China, Hong Kong and South-East Asia.
Steelfields operates from its 65,000-sq-ft purpose-built factory on a 2.6-hectare site in South-East England, and has maintained strong exports to the Middle East since the early 1970s. Each concrete plant is built to well-proven designs on a batch-production basis moving through the workshop at designated assembly stages and finishing points.
Technicians and sales engineers from Steelfields travel regularly throughout the GCC and participate in several important Middle East trade events, such as The Big 5 show in Dubai (UAE), Saudi Build in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Libya Build in Tripoli (Libya). In addition, Steelfields has established local representative offices in Riyadh, and Muscat, Oman, plus an additional service agreement to cover the UAE, thus ensuring local contact and support together with a holding of consumable spare parts.