The UAE's state-owned steelmaker Emirates Steel Industries (ESI), formerly Emirates Iron and Steel Factory (EISF), has signed an AED 1.74 billion ($474 million) contract with Italian-based plantmaker Danieli Corporation for the construction of phase II B of the company's overall expansion plan worth 9 billion dirhams ($2.45 billion).
Accordingly, phase II B's rolling mill will produce heavy section beams, columns and sheet piles. Danieli will be the contractor for the construction of a heavy section rolling mill with a production capacity of one million mt per year, which will add to Emirates Steel's total capacity by the end of 2011.
Emirates Steel currently has an output capacity of two million mt, and is expected to reach three million mt by 2011.
The company previously said that it expects to raise its annual output capacity to six million by 2014, as it builds new plants across Abu Dhabi.
Meanwhile, speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi ESI chairman Hussein Al Nowais revealed that Emirates Steel is in the process of acquiring 100 percent of a steel company in the Middle East.
"We have signed a memorandum of understanding with a regional steel company and this is part of our acquisition plan to increase the overall production capacity of Emirates Steel," Mr. Nowais said, declining to name the company or the value of the deal.