Gulf Construction Online - Emirates Steel enhances structural steel capabilities

UAE Focus

A worker supervises production at the mill.

Emirates Steel enhances structural steel capabilities

01 August 2013

JUST one year after launching production, the $1.6-billion heavy sections mill of Emirates Steel is now diversifying its product range with the development of structural steel with enhanced mechanical properties that are often specified in offshore oil, gas and petrochemical projects.

The 15-year-old GCC steelmaker has a capacity to produce one million tonnes of structural steel per year and has recently started to ramp up production.

“We are in the middle of a transition period,” said CEO Saeed Al Romaithi. “We are ramping up production to reach the one-million-tonne level possibly in three years’ time when we would have developed our product range and optimised our rolling mill efficiency.”

The mill currently offers a wide range of products from medium light sections to heavy jumbo sections in sizes ranging from approximately 200 mm to 1,000 mm in depth.

“We are now developing new grades with higher mechanical properties to meet market demand in the oil and gas sector,” Al Romaithi said.

The steelmaker has started developing S355J2 structural steel which maintains its impact strength even at -20 deg C. This steel is intended for offshore oil and gas structures.

By producing these enhanced grades, Emirates Steel should be in a better position to compete for a larger share of the heavy sections market in the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region, which is currently supplied largely by imports, according to Al Romaithi. “We have identified the product grades that are required by our customers and we are producing them to order,” he said.

The company is gearing up to meet the anticipated demand for steel created through the substantial investment being made in new oil, gas and petrochemical and in steel-intensive downstream industries in the next 10 years or so. Among the steel products required for these developments will be hot rolled coil, plate and heavy sections.

Emirates Steel, currently one of the largest steelmakers in the region, produces heavy sections including beams, columns, channels, angles and sheet piles. It may also start production of hot rolled carbon (HRC) in a few years’ time.

To date, the company’s heavy sections mill has been producing parallel-flange beams, columns and bearing piles with up to 914 mm web depth and 419 flange widths and parallel flange channels up to 430 mm depth. This structural steel is produced to norms such as EN, BS, W and JIS against grades such as S275JR, S355JR/JO/J2, ASTM A572 G50 and A992. The company is also developing its own bespoke sheet piling designs, which will be manufactured in grades meeting the EN S355 GP, S390 GP and S430 GP standards.

According to the latest available reports, the oil and gas sector in the GCC region plans to invest around $700 billion to boost its capacities. To respond to these and other developments, the GCC steel sector aims to spend more than $18 billion to accommodate growth and meet extra demand, the reports say.

Encouraged by this positive climate, Emirates Steel increased its production capacity levels in stages by 2012 to 3.5 million tonnes following two expansion projects and an investment of Dh10 billion ($2.72 billion).