Hamriyah Steel, the new rebar producer based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an annual output of one million mt, is scheduled to be commissioned on January 6 next year, having begun operational tests in mid-November. Hamriyah Steel is a joint venture of Russian steel and iron ore producer Metalloinvest and Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler and emir of Abu Dhabi.
Metalloinvest's subsidiary Ural Steel, which will be the supplier of semi-finished products for Hamriyah Steel, sent 4,000 mt of billets to the UAE for the operational tests in question.
"We plan to produce about 700,000 mt of rebar in 2010 and one million mt in 2011," Hamriyah Steel's general manager Mr. Shukhrat Nishanov stated. The plant's capacity will be increased gradually from 10,000 mt per month in January 2010 to 80,000 mt in November-December 2010.
Accordingly, Hamriyah Steel had already signed a number of agreements of intention with potential consumers of its products in 2010. The plant's stock of orders amounts to 100 percent of its production plan for 2010. The plant intends to claim 20 percent of the UAE rebar market by the time it reaches its designed capacity in 2011.
Hamriyah Steel will produce rebar of 10-40 mm diameter, meeting both local and international standards such as BS4449, ASTM A615 and DIN 488. The plant will be equipped with modern thermo-processing technology, designed to improve technical characteristics of low carbon steel by surface hardening and self-tempering. Thermo-processing will allow Hamriyah Steel to obtain yield strength levels of up to 550 MPa with very good specification figures for welding and elongation.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the equipment supply contract for the Hamriyah Steel was awarded to SMS Meer S.p.A., the Italian subsidiary of German plantmaker SMS Meer. The estimated cost of the new plant is $156 million.
The decision to build Hamriyah Steel, which will become the second largest rebar producer in UAE, was conditioned by the significant demand from the regional construction sector. Before the crisis, in 2007, the UAE was one of the largest importers of steel, with purchase volumes reaching nine million mt per year. Even now, the UAE's expected demand for rebars in 2010 is estimated at about five million mt. The reduction of demand in the UAE has caused Hamriyah Steel to consider the possibility of exporting its products to other markets in the Gulf region, including Iran and Egypt. The proximity to end-users and the location of the plant close to port will enable it to minimize transportation costs, both for the delivery of raw materials, as well as for the delivery of finished products.
Hamriyah Steel is the first plant built by a CIS-based company outside Russia or Ukraine, and the first major steel mill built by a foreign company in the Persian Gulf.