Saudi Arabian Hadeed to expand capacity

Mr. Mohammad S Al-Jabr of SABIC stated on Tuesday that Saudi Arabian steelmaker Hadeed is going to reach an annual steel production capacity of 10 million tons by 2010 as confirmed previously. He also added that Hadeed's management decided last week that annual capacity would be increased to 17 million tons by 2020. Of this figure, only five million tons will be directed to flat rolled products, while the rest will be taken up by long products in plants located kingdomwide. Hadeed is already about to complete the commissioning of its new 500,000 tons per year bar/rod mill and Mr. Al-Jabr expects commercial production to start even before the end of the current year. The mill's long products capacity will reach three million tons by next year with this addition. The total production capacity of Hadeed will then consist of 60 percent long products and 40 percent flat rolled products. Hadeed has also completed its investment in a new hot strip mill which doubles capacity from one to two million tons per year. The new galvanizing line is also now in operation, while the new color coating line adds a capacity of 120,000 tons per year. Currently, Hadeed is investing in the largest direct reduction plant in the world. The project which is being carried out by Midrex, will bring an additional capacity of 1.76 million tons and most interestingly involves hot charging to the furnace directly. The iron ore consumption of Hadeed will exceed eight million tons per year when this new plant starts operations before mid-2007.