16 May 2009
MANAMA - Bahrain's first steel reinforcement bar mill has begun production after receiving government approval. It is also looking to increase jobs at the facility to 200 in a matter of months.
The Universal Rolling (Unirol), which took four years to build in the Hidd Industrial Area, has utilized state-of-the-art technology in steel rolling and manufacturing in addition to the latest quality control systems.
It has an in-house laboratory in order to guarantee the highest level of quality and compliance with British Standard BS 4449:97 grade 460, and American Standard ASTM A615 grade 60.
"The commencement of production at our plant comes after big efforts made jointly by our team of Bahrainis and expats in addition to the support received from governmental agencies that made our success possible,"said Unirol Managing Director Mazen Almahroos.
"This new industrial entity will reflect positively on the lives of Bahrainis working with us, and on the real estate sector specifically, and the local economy as a whole."
"Currently the factory is running at only a portion of its 200,000 tons per annum production capacity, with capability of covering a huge part of the local demand of the kingdom for this strategically important product."
"Unirol currently employs 130 people and that number is set to increase to 200 within the coming months as production is ramped up," he said.
"We will work in the coming months on training Bahrainis in order for them to play a bigger role in this new industrial entity," he added.
He confirmed that the samples taken from the trial production were tested by the Works Ministry and conformity to internationally recognized standards has been confirmed. Engineers from the Ministry visited the facilities of Unirol and issued their unconditional approval for use of Bahraini steel produced by Unirol for government and Works Ministry projects.
As a result, Unirol started to market its steel in the local market and successfully supplied some high profile projects around the kingdom.
"We all remember what happened during the construction boom in 2008 when some projects came to a sudden halt due to lack of steel and cement," said Almahroos.
"The existence of a local producer guarantees to a great extent that Bahrain will not go through what happened in the past again. We would like to see Bahrain more dependent on itself rather than on imports especially when it comes to our development projects."
MANAMA - Bahrain's first steel reinforcement bar mill has begun production after receiving government approval. It is also looking to increase jobs at the facility to 200 in a matter of months.
The Universal Rolling (Unirol), which took four years to build in the Hidd Industrial Area, has utilized state-of-the-art technology in steel rolling and manufacturing in addition to the latest quality control systems.
It has an in-house laboratory in order to guarantee the highest level of quality and compliance with British Standard BS 4449:97 grade 460, and American Standard ASTM A615 grade 60.
"The commencement of production at our plant comes after big efforts made jointly by our team of Bahrainis and expats in addition to the support received from governmental agencies that made our success possible,"said Unirol Managing Director Mazen Almahroos.
"This new industrial entity will reflect positively on the lives of Bahrainis working with us, and on the real estate sector specifically, and the local economy as a whole."
"Currently the factory is running at only a portion of its 200,000 tons per annum production capacity, with capability of covering a huge part of the local demand of the kingdom for this strategically important product."
"Unirol currently employs 130 people and that number is set to increase to 200 within the coming months as production is ramped up," he said.
"We will work in the coming months on training Bahrainis in order for them to play a bigger role in this new industrial entity," he added.
He confirmed that the samples taken from the trial production were tested by the Works Ministry and conformity to internationally recognized standards has been confirmed. Engineers from the Ministry visited the facilities of Unirol and issued their unconditional approval for use of Bahraini steel produced by Unirol for government and Works Ministry projects.
As a result, Unirol started to market its steel in the local market and successfully supplied some high profile projects around the kingdom.
"We all remember what happened during the construction boom in 2008 when some projects came to a sudden halt due to lack of steel and cement," said Almahroos.
"The existence of a local producer guarantees to a great extent that Bahrain will not go through what happened in the past again. We would like to see Bahrain more dependent on itself rather than on imports especially when it comes to our development projects."
© The Saudi Gazette 2009
