Keeping pace with the growing demand for flat and long products, leading Saudi Arabia-based steel manufacturer Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed) has recently kicked off a series of expansion programmes that will strengthen the company’s position in the fast-growing construction markets both within the kingdom and outside.

The expansion is expected to double the company’s capacity for flat products by the end of 2006 and is also expected to boost its production capacity for long products, says a company spokesman.
Hadeed has recently entered into contracts with Italian and Austrian companies to fulfill its expansion drive. As per the contracts, Italian Danieli and Saudi Dywidag will supply and set up a new plant for the production of steel reinforcing bars and wire rods with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes beside the existing long product plants at its complex in Jubail Industrial City.
The company has also entered into contracts with Saudi Voest Alpine Company and another with the Austrian Voest Alpine Company and the US Midrex Technologies to establish a direct reduction plant – Module E – which will have an annual capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of directly reduced iron (DRI). This ironwork will use modern technology to enable the company to produce hot reduced iron at temperatures as high as 600 deg C, increasing the steel plant’s production by 15 per cent, says the spokesman.
Once complete, Hadeed will produce more than 5.1 million tonnes through all its five modules, making it the world’s largest producer of DRI operating from a single location, he says.
Hadeed has also signed an agreement with Saudi Voest Alpine, Saudi Siemens and another agreement with a consortium incorporating the Austrian Voest Alpine and German Siemens to set up an steel plant with an electrical arc furnace, with an annual production capacity of 1.4 million tonnes of molten steel, and a continuous steel casting facility with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of steel.
Technology initiative
Hadeed introduced bar quenching technology to its rolling mills in Jubail in 1988 to enable the manufacture of superior quality concrete reinforcing bars. This technology employs a state-of-the-art process involving high pressure surface quenching followed by self-tempering.
Elaborating on this process, he says: “As the bar emerges from the last rolling stand, high-pressure water jets rapidly reduce the surface temperature. This action causes a change in the microstructure of the steel, making it harder and stronger. Subsequently, the heat retained in the core dissipates and heats the surface to around 620 deg C causing another change in the microstructure, which improves the ductility and toughness of the bar.
“This process meets the ever-increasing demands of structural engineers for higher yield strength combined with good ductility and weldability in reinforcing steel, thus reducing construction costs.
“Sabic Research and Technology Centre and the Research Institute of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) carried out several studies on Hadeed’s rebar and the results confirmed the superiority of our rebar compared with conventional hot-rolled rebars.”
The facility
Much of the raw material required for the plant comes arrives at the King Fahd Industrial port by ships as ore pellets, which is then transported through six conveyor belts to its open storage yard.
At the facility, steel-making begins at the direct reduction (DR) plants where the iron ore is reduced into DRI. Hadeed has four modules – A, B and C (based on Midrex technology), and Module D (based on HyL III technology) – producing DRI.
Module A and B started production in 1982/83 with a design capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year (tpy) each. Module C started production in 1992 with a design capacity of 650,000 tpy. Module D started production in 1999 with a design capacity of 1.12 million tpy.
Hadeed’s long product section produces steel billets, which are subsequently rolled to produce steel reinforcing bar, wire rods, and light sections. The flat product section produces slabs, which are then rolled to produce hot rolled coils, which can be an end product itself or form input feed to downstream facilities comprising cold rolling mill and galvanising line.
The steel major’s long products steel plant converts sponge iron and ferrous scrap into steel billets. The long products facility consists of three electric arc furnaces (each of 150-tonne capacity), two ladle furnaces and three six-strand billet casters. The casting machines convert the liquid steel into billets. At present, the plant produces more than 2.85 million tonnes of steel billets and is likely to produce more than three million tonnes of steel billets this year.
Hadeed flagged off the expansion of its long products facilities last May to install a new rebar and wire rod mill with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes. “Long products are primarily aimed at its domestic market and the increased capacity is designed to meet local demand,” says the spokesman.
The long products rolling mills currently comprise three separate units:
• A single strand bar mill (Mannesman
   Demag system);
• A rod mill (Schloeman Siemag system); and 
• A section and bar mill (Danielli system)
Both the single-strand bar mill and rod mill came on stream in January 1983. Three years later, the slitting process was introduced in the bar mill for sizes of 12 to 20 mm, thus increasing production by more than 21 per cent, says the spokesman.
The flat products steel plant, commissioned in 1998 has an electric arc furnace, one ladle furnace, one twin tank degasser and a slab caster. With a rated design capacity of 825,000 tonnes of slabs, the plant produces more than 1 million tonnes of slabs a year.
Hadeed’s flat products rolling mills comprise a hot strip mill, a cold mill complex and finishing facilities.
The hot-strip mill has an annual design production capacity   of 850,000 tonnes of hot rolled coils of 1.5 mm in thickness and 900 to 1,650 mm wide. The hot-rolled coils meet the international standards including the construction and the high quality grades.
The cold mill complex includes:
•A push pickling line with an annual capacity of 456,000 tonnes. The line is designed to process strips ranging from 1.4 to 6.0 mm of thickness, whilst the width ranges from 850 to 1,650 mm;
•A four-high reversing mill with an annual capacity of 360,000 tonnes. This line produces strips in thicknesses range from 0.3 to 3.0 mm and a width range from 850 to 1650 mm;
•A batch annealing facility with an annual capacity of 150,000 tonnes;
•A temper mill with an annual capacity of 411,000 tonnes;
•A continuous hot-dip galvanising line with an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes. This line produces coils with thickness ranging from 0.3 to 2.0 mm and a width range of 850 to 1,400 mm;
•A cold slitting and recoiling line with an annual capacity of 186,000 tonnes.
“Hadeed’s plants, which are certified ISO14001 and ISO9001 speak for the company’s commitment for environment and quality,” says the spokesman. “All plants are operated with high levels of automation by a highly motivated, skilled and qualified workforce.
The process is closely monitored and controlled by advanced computer software. This ensures that the quality of Hadeed’s flat and long products satisfy the requirements of the internal as well as external customers,” he adds.
Hadeed’s products – both long and flat – have been used in several of the major projects both within the country and outside.