Russia’s Metalloinvest to Invest $156 Million in UAE

The project, Hamriyah Steel, would take two years to build and another year to reach full capacity of 1 million tonnes a year of steel reinforcing bars used in construction.

“The project’s main goal is the diversification of export markets and an increase in the share of value-added products,” Metalloinvest said in a statement.

The company said it was in talks with leading international lenders to secure finance for the plant, which will be built in the Hamriyah free-trade zone in the emirate of Sharjah.

Metalloinvest said it had created a joint venture with partners in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement was signed by Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, honorary chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The plant could potentially supply 25 per cent of the market in the UAE and could export to other countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and North and West Africa, Metalloinvest said.

“The Middle East reinforcing bar market, in terms of price, has surpassed Southeast Asia and entered the top three most lucrative markets in the world,” the company said.

About 64 percent of reinforcing bars used in the Persian Gulf region, or 5.8 million tonnes a year, are imported.

Metalloinvest said Saudi Arabia alone required 4 million tonnes and the UAE 3.5 million tonnes of reinforcing bars last year, compared with only 3.2 million tonnes in Russia.

Metalloinvest could supply Hamriyah Steel with billet, a semi-finished product, from its Urals Steel plant in Russia for rolling into reinforcing bars that could be sold at a higher price.

Metalloinvest owns Urals Steel and the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant in Russia, as well as the country’s two largest iron ore miners — Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK.

It also owns the Moldova Metallurgical Plant.

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