UAE-based steelmaker Emirates Steel has announced that it is now focusing on high-margin, high-strength value-added products amid better demand prospects and mega expansion plans in the pipeline within the Middle East region.
Emirates Steel stated that, in an environment of low capacity utilization, it is revisiting its optimization models. Its strategies for the next five years include focusing on value-added products despite challenges of higher setup times and smaller production campaigns. Not many steelmakers in the Middle East region are present in the value-added segment yet and this is one reason why Emirates Steel is expanding its product manufacturing lines.
According to Emirates Steel, in the past couple of years demand has been growing for special steel, with superior quality to meet stringent application norms of various market segments in the Middle East region. The primary focus of these product developments are stronger steels with higher tensile strengths and steels with special mechanical properties so that lesser quantity of steel is required by customers for similar applications.