Construction costs set to spiral
Riyadh: Construction costs in the kingdom are likely to go up by 35 per cent because of a rise in iron and steel prices, a senior official has said.

A report quoting Muhammad Al Anqari, chairman of the contractors committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that contractors had been forced to increase the charges as a result of a price hike for building materials such as steel, cement and wood.
Companies have already started signing new construction contracts with increased rates, he said.

Call to stop steel exports
Riyadh: Steel manufacturers in Saudi Arabia are being urged to stop exporting steel in order to meet domestic needs.
The call came from Muhammad Saleh Al Jabr, chairman of Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed), an affiliate of Sabic.
Al Jabr denied media reports that Hadeed exports steel to Iraq and the US. “Hadeed has not exported steel to Iraq for 15 years,” he said in remarks published in the Arab News.
He said the present steel shortage is a global phenomenon and the situation is unlikely to improve for the next two years.
Of nearly four million tonnes of steel Saudi Arabia produces annually, three million tonnes are produced by Hadeed, and the production figures of the other four steel units in the private sector adds up to a million.
Ninety per cent of Hadeed production goes to the local market and the rest goes to the GCC and international market.
Hadeed is launching a new production facility with initial production of 500 tonnes annually, which will ease the pressure a little, he said.

Al Salam invests $150m in DIFC
Riyadh: Saudi investment company Al Salam is to invest $150 million in a building project that is part of the new Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
This is the first deal to be announced following last month’s announcement that the DIFC was seeking investment and joint venture partners, according to the report.
The DIFC is being established to position Dubai as a hub for institutional finance and as the regional gateway for capital and investment to the Middle East.
The Al Salam Group is involved in many major projects in the region including a substantial tourism scheme in Lebanon worth over $1.3 billion that is expected to create thousands of local jobs. The group also has over $12 billion invested in real estate projects in Saudi.

Jamarat expansion set to take off
Mina: The Jamrat expansion project aimed at facilitating the stoning ritual during Haj and easing the movement of the pilgrims in Mina, will increase the capacity of the Jamrat site to 500,000 pilgrims per hour.
The project will be constructed in two stages – five floors will be built in the first phase and four in the second – all together taking 20 years, said Dr Osama Fadul Albar, dean of the King Fahd Institute for Haj Research, Umm Al Qura University.
The first expansion of the Jamrat was carried out in 1975 when the current bridge was constructed. It accommodates about 80,000 pilgrims per hour. In a very crowded situation, it could accommodate about 100,000 per hour per floor. With two floors in place, the capacity of the Jamrat area is currently about 200,000 pilgrims per hour. This is not enough because during peak hours the crowds can reach to about six or seven people per sq m, he said.

$46.4m deals inked in Jubail, Yanbu
Jubail: The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu has signed three contracts worth a total of SR173.99 million ($46.4 million) with three national companies to carry out an educational project and two road projects.
The contracts include expansion of the Jubail Industrial College, constructing new buildings for the departments of electronics and electricity and a general library.

Zamil Steel gets new machinery
Jeddah: The Structural Steel Business Unit (SSBU) of Zamil Steel Industry has purchased new machinery to facilitate its plans to expand and diversify its product base.
The new Swedish technology-based Stierli-Richtpresse 2000 RP machine is used to bend not only small-size pipes, “I”, “H” and “C” section beams, but also giant sized beams into any curve or shape required. The products can provide an artistic look for a building, shopping mall or any other commercial complex, said Ayman Kanaan, general manager.

iScala to streamline business
Riyadh: Scala Business Solutions said Saudi Arabia’s precast company AlRashid-Abetong has selected its iScala Collaborative ERP system to streamline its business processes.
A senior spokesperson of Scala Middle East said the move would help the company reduce redundancies in business processes and in turn gain from cost savings through real-time execution of a variety of its activities.
The official said iScala has proven benefits in a manufacturing environment.
The signing up of AlRashid-Abetong, which reported sales worth SR190 million last year, comes in the backdrop of increased awareness of its enterprise solutions in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia.