Beirut (APD) - Bahrain-based United Stainless Steel Company (USCO), a company in which Kuwait-based Gulf Investment Corporation is a major stakeholder, plans to invest $500 million in three new steel plants with combined capacities of 3.8 million metric tons per year (mtpy), the Manama-based al Wasat daily reported Wednesday.
The chairman of USCO and head of manufacturing projects at GIC, Khaled Al Qudairi stated during a meeting on Tuesday with the Kuwaiti minister of commerce and industry that USCO will establish a subsidiary called the United Gulf Steel Company.
This new company that will manage the three projects, comprising a plant to produce fabricated steel at a capacity of 1.6 million mtpy with total investments at $240 million, a steel smelter with a production capacity of 1.1 million mtpy at $120 million, and a project to produce steel rods with a production capacity of 1.1 million mtpy $140 million.
USCO, which was created in early 2005, late last year signed a $153 million facility agreement with Arab Banking Corporation to part finance the construction of its first manufacturing project, a 90,000 tpy cold rolled stainless steel mill in Hidd, Bahrain. Production at the plant is scheduled to start in April 2007.
In related news, Manama-based Gulf Industrial Investment Company (GIIC) plans to expand existing capacities at its iron ore pelletizing plant from currently four million mtpy to ten million mtpy at a cost of $400 million, al Wasat reported. GIIC is a 50:50 joint venture of GIC and Brazilian ore mining group, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce.
Gulf Investment Corporation, an equal joint venture between the six GCC countries, is a stakeholder in numerous financial and manufacturing ventures in the Gulf region, including GIIC and USCO. [TS]
By Nadim Issa, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2006
