Saudi Arabian section mill United Gulf Steel Mill has now been acquired by new owner, Bahraini steelmaker United Steel Company. SULB is 51%:49% JV between Kuwaiti holding company Foulath and Japanese steel company Yamato Kogyo. The latter announced the acquisition in June as reported by Steel Business Briefing.

Currently under construction and expected to come online in the middle of 2012, the Bahraini works comprises 1.5 million tonnes per year capacity DRI plant, 1 million tonne per year melt shop and 600,000 tonne per year heavy sections mill that will produce medium to large H-beams. The acquisition of SULB has added 450,000 tonne per year section capacity and completed the range with beams and channels up to 200 mm.

Mr Hisham Al Razzuqi Foulath board member said that UGS will source billet from SULB once the Bahrain based steelworks is commissioned. The group will be one of the Middle East's few fully integrated medium and heavy structural sections producers. It now has an overall sections capacity of 1.1 million tonne per year with which it aims to replace some 25% of the region’s annual import requirement of the product which totals 4 million tonne.

Consumption of sections in the region will increase in the medium term, driven by an array of infrastructure projects carried out by regional governments to appease their populations at a time of social unrest.
The SULB works is adjacent to Gulf Industrial Investment Company’s 11 million tonne per year iron ore pelletizing plant, which is part of Foulath’s parent company Gulf Investment Corporation.

(Sourced from www.arabsteel.info)