Buoyed by the response it received at the Big 5 show last year, Saudi-based pre-engineered steel buildings (PEBs) manufacturer Zamil Steel intends to repeat its success this year at the event as its intensifying its forays into the regional and global markets.

“Our participation at the Big 5 show last year generated considerable business opportunities. The event was a success in terms of organisation and attendance, which encouraged us to participate again this year,” says Hatem Turki, marketing manager of the company. “The Big 5 trade show gives us a chance to position our company as a leading PEB supplier in the UAE markets, promote our products to a high concentration of potential clients and increase awareness of the use of steel in the construction industry.”
In addition to its global leadership in the design and manufacture of pre-engineered steel buildings used to house factories, warehouses, workshops, aircraft hangars, commercial centres, hypermarkets, showrooms, exhibition centres, multi-function halls and low-rise non-residential steel buildings, Zamil Steel is also the Middle East’s premier supplier of structural steel products, pressure vessels, transmission and telecommunications towers, open web steel joists and floor deckings.
While focusing on its existing product portfolio in general, the company also intends to put the spotlight on steel products that are used in special projects for malls and architectural buildings in the region, at this year’s show.
Hence, sharing its stand 332 Hall 8A, stand 332 at the Big 5 will be sister company Canam Asia, a specialist in steel joists, decks and Hambro joists, which has a production line dedicated to special projects.
Against a backdrop of a booming construction sector and the rapid industrialization in the region, Zamil Steel’s sales growth by the third quarter of this year is already running close to last year’s figures with a high possibility of overshooting the company’s set targets, he says.
“Our domestic market absorbs 52 per cent of our total sales and we expect this figure to increase this by the year-end. Our monthly production capacity of PEBs is 9,500 tonnes per month and we have plans to increase our manufacturing capacity in the Gulf by setting up a factory in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE which will have an initial production capacity of 3,000 m tonnes per month.
“In addition, we are expanding in the global market and intend to invest around $20 million in establishing a PEB factory in Pune, Maharashtra in India. This factory – for which we have already acquired land – will produce around 3 million sq m of PEBs per annum,” adds Turki.
Besides facilities in Saudi Arabia, Zamil Steel also operates two state-of-the-art PEB factories in Egypt and Vietnam, which were recently expanded, in keeping up with the growing demand for its steel products around the globe.
Zamil Steel Industries, part of the holding company Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC) was established in the First Industrial City of Dammam in 1977, and has grown from a local single-division company into a market leader in the steel fabrication industry in Asia, Africa and Europe. While its Dammam-based factory holds claim to be the largest single PEB factory in the world, the company has expanded in the Gulf to include offices in Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Muscat in Oman and Sana’a in Yemen.
“The present growth in the construction industry in the region will continue for the coming two to four years and we intend to utilise this to its full potential, seizing all opportunities for more business and entering newer markets both in the region and abroad,” adds Turki.
With three large business divisions comprising the PEB, structural steel and towers and galvanizing units, Zamil Steel has supplied to more than 40,000 buildings to more than 80 countries worldwide from Panama and Mexico in the west to the Philippines, China, South Korea and Japan in the east. The company, which registered a turnover of $156.74 million last year, is committed to a local presence and currently maintains 54 area offices located in 40 countries and is staffed by around 664 employees.