Al Ghurair Iron & Steel hits production milestone
Abu Dhabi, October 10, 2013
Abu Dhabi-based Al Ghurair Iron & Steel (Agis), a JV between the Al Ghurair Group and Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, reached a major milestone with an output of 1 million tonnes of flat steel products in five years.
The company achieved the milestone on its continuous galvanising line on Wednesday (October 9) at its UAE-based complex, said a statement from the company.
Within a record time, Agis produced a million tonne each in its pickling line, cold rolling mill and galvanising line. Production at the greenfield Abu Dhabi facility began in September 2008 and the lines have been in continuous production since, it added.
CEO Abu Bucker Husain attributed the performance to the strong economies of the region and excellent support by the ZonesCorp and Abu Dhabi Government to non-oil based industries.
"Despite starting our operations at the peak of the global economic crisis, we managed to do well on the strength of the quality of our products. In the very first year we reached 100 per cent capacity utilization of the plant," remarked Husain.
Husain said Al Ghurair Iron & Steel was the first and the only flat steel cold rolling and galvanising complex in the UAE.
"Currently, we are producing a little over the installed capacity. UAE has been able to rebound better than most other economies after the economic crisis and the construction industry is buoyant after the latest announcements of various developmental projects," he stated.
Agis has ordered for new equipment to expand the production capacities at the existing location and the commissioning is scheduled for early 2015, said the UAE firm in its statement.
Tenders for the civil works have been floated and work on the ground is scheduled to commence before the end of this year, it added.
“In addition to commissioning a new continuous galvanising line to increase the total output capacity, a skin pass mill is also being added to the existing line in order to boost the product basket. AGIS plans to provide the substrate steel sheets to the prepainting & colour coating lines in the region,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service
