Middle East Manufacturing Exhibition (Memex), a leading manufacturing exhibition in the region, is set to stage the second in the series of dedicated trade shows for the manufacturing sector, following a successful debut last year.

The exhibition, which is set to take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from November 23 to 25 this year, aims to continue to provide a unique platform for suppliers to network and conduct business with organisations currently producing or manufacturing in the Middle East or have plans to do so over the short to medium term.
New this year’s event will be Industryscape, a complementary vertical show that runs in parallel with Memex. Set to be the region’s dedicated trade show for industrial, manufacturing and production real estate, Industryscape will be managed by the organisers of Cityscape, the world’s largest business-to-business real estate show.
“While there is talk of a slowdown in other parts of the world, the growth in the Middle East manufacturing base continues to expand with demand for steel far outstripping supply. In the race to plug the supply gap, a swathe of new steel plant projects as well as expansions to existing plants have been unveiled across the region with huge potential business opportunities for industry stakeholders,” says Spencer Felix, exhibition manager of Middle East Manufacturing Exhibition (Memex).
More than $18 billion is being invested in 46 steel manufacturing plants throughout the Arabian Gulf in an attempt to close the widening gap between supply and demand for steel, according to latest industry research, he says.
According to the database of research company Proleads, which monitors major construction projects across the region from initial study to completion, Saudi Arabia with 17 and the UAE with 16 are leading the way in steel plant projects individually varying in value from $2 billion to $15 million. Oman has six steel plants, Bahrain four and Qatar three in the current order books.
Topping the list of projects is an integrated complex of steel factories in Saudi Arabia, which will be focus on the production of railway track, iron and steel processing and production and pipes.
According to Proleads, the top 10 new steel production projects in the GCC – of which four are in Saudi Arabia, three in the UAE, two in Qatar and one in Oman – are:
• Al Tuwairqi Group’s integrated steel complex – a $2 billion planned project for an integrated complex of steel factories in Dammam Industrial Area in Saudi Arabia. The complex will have a 500,000 tonne per year (tpy) railway bar manufacturing plant, 3 million tpy of iron and steel processing and production plant and a 800,000 tpa steel pipeline manufacturing plant;
• Qatar Steel Company’s $1.5 billion expansion project at its integrated steel facility at Mesaieed;
• Saudi Iron & Steel Company’s (Hadeed) second expansion of its Jubail mill – a $600 million project currently being carried out for a direct reduction iron plant with a capacity of 1.76 million tpy;
• Hadeed’s third expansion of Jubail mill – a $1 billion planned project that calls for expanding steel production by 1 million tpy;
• Sojitz Corporation steel plant – a $1 billion planned project in Fujairah in the UAE, which will convert iron ore pellets into steel billets with capacity of 1.5 million tpy;
• Essar Group’s steel plant – a $800 million ongoing project in Qatar, which will comprise of a 1.5 million tpy steel rolling mill plant and a 1million tpy hot briquetted steel;
• Al Ruya Industries’ steel plant – a $700 million project which is under study involving the setting up of an integrated steel making facility in Hamriya Free Zone in the UAE;
• Sohar Industrial Port Company’s iron ore pellet plant – a $700 million ongoing project in Oman, which will receive 7.5 million tonnes of raw material a year and then export the iron ore pellets to steel producers in the Gulf countries;
• Boulder seamless tube project – a $600 million project currently in the design phase, which entails setting up a seamless steel tube finishing facility with a capacity of 175,000 tpy in Hamriyah Free Zone in the UAE. The feedstock will be imported from Boulder Steel Mill based in Queensland in Australia; and
• Pan Kingdom Investment Company’s expansion project at Jizan Economic City in Saudi Arabia – a $600 project, now under study for expanding the production capacity of its plant to include a rolling mill, melt shop and a direct reduction iron plant.