Dubai-based Age Intrade – a leading stockist and trader of structural steel with one of the largest inventory in the UAE – is currently poised to further expand its existing storage capacity in the Jebel Ali Free Zone by another 25,000 sq m by the end of this year.

The company, which currently exports structural steel to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman and some other GCC countries, also says that plans are in the pipeline to open new offices in these regions.
“With the demand for structural steel on a high due to the recent construction boom, and with more inventories coming in, we felt the need to boost our 20,000 sq m store yard in Jebel Ali to cope with the changing needs,” says Raed Siddiqui, one of the directors of the company.
Besides its Jebel Ali branch, the company also operates from its 15,000 sq m storage yard at Ras Al Khor Industrial area in Al Awir, where it stocks 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes of structural steel products. The yard has easy access to the main roads leading to the other neighbouring Gulf States and seaports.
With the current expansion, the company envisages a total of 60,000 sq m of storage area by the end of this year, which will allow it to stock inventories of a range of structural steel products that will help meet the needs of the UAE construction market. The company also maintains a fleet of trailers, trucks and forklifts to ensure a smooth flow of the stocks to various client sites across the region.
“The furious pace of construction in the UAE has resulted in a shortage of steel in the market with steel moving faster than it can be supplied. We have stocks moving out of our yards every day and this year in particular, the demand for structural steel has picked up considerably. The current shortage can be partly blamed to supply problems and delays in deliveries into the region, especially from Ukraine, along with some cancellation of orders,” adds Siddiqui.
“The company has managed to ensure a smooth supply of steel by spreading its imports from various markets across the globe, which include Europe, Far East, Japan, South Africa, Thailand and China. Imports especially from China have rapidly picked up,” says Siddiqui.
“We have a strict pricing policy and place great emphasis on customer service. We are an IT-efficient company and use a modern and regularly updated software package with all our orders and supplies being input online, which help us cut costs, lower overheads and pass on the benefits to the end user,” adds Siddiqui.
Founded by two brothers, Ghayoor and Misbah Siddiqui, the 26-year-old firm that is one of the largest stockholders of structural steel in the UAE, has established an excellent track record of supplying quality structural steel to projects throughout the Middle East. Some of the recent works in the company’s portfolio in the UAE include the expansion of Dubai International Airport, the Dubai Metro rail and the Palm Jumeirah projects, all currently under construction as well as a number of industrial factories across the region.