Emirates Steel moves into sheet pile production

Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Steel has expanded its product range to include sheet pile materials; high value-added products that the UAE’s only integrated steelmaker has been developing over the past two years. With this product launch, the Senaat-owned company becomes the only steel manufacturer in the Middle East to develop and sell such materials.

On March 21, 2014, Emirates Steel started taking full orders for Z-piles, which are used as barriers to support excavations. The mill’s product development team will work on building up the portfolio with the addition of five more Z-products in the two coming years before the range is complete by 2017. According to Emirates Steel estimates, the demand for sheet piles in the GCC is around 80,000 tons per year.

Emirates Steel said it plans to produce up to 150,000 tons of sheet piles a year, depending on market demand, and hopes to add further value-added products to its range so as to reduce its exposure in the highly competitive commercial beam market. In total, the Company boasts rebar mills, a wire rod mill and a structural steel mill with a combined capacity of 3.5 million metric tons a year.

Al Romaithi stressed that high value-added long products are being developed to enhance profitability in the face of challenging market conditions. In June last year, Emirates Steel made public its plans to diversify the product range for its one million metric tons per year heavy section mill to produce S355J2 grade structural steel specified in offshore oil, gas and petrochemical projects.