On May 5, German plantmaker SMS Group announced that its subsidiaries SMS Meer and SMS Concast received an order from Bahrain-based United Steel Company (SULB) at the end of March this year for the design and supply of a mini-mill plant for beams and sections in Bahrain.
The integrated complex in Al Hidd will comprise a 120-mt electric arc furnace, a ladle furnace, a bloom and beam-blank casting plant and a heavy section mill. The project to be carried out in conjunction with Samsung Engineering will be completed by 2012.
SMS Concast will supply a melt shop with an annual capacity of 850,000 metric tons. It comprises a 120-mt high-performance electric arc furnace for the charging of direct reduced iron, a ladle furnace and a three-strand caster for bloom and beam blanks.
The civil works and erection as well as integration facilities will be provided and coordinated by Samsung Engineering.
Meanwhile, SMS Meer will supply a heavy section mill with an initial annual capacity of 600,000 metric tons.
Together with Foulath's existing pelletizing plant in Al Hidd, which will be further extended, and the DRI plant ordered from Kobe/Midrex, SULB will operate a fully integrated steel complex from pelletizing through to the finished rolled products.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the €1.2 billion-worth investment in question will create 1,000 new jobs in Bahrain. Through its own production with this plant, SULB plans to meet around 15 percent of the demand for steel beams and sections in the whole Middle Eastern region that are currently imported.