Jindal Shadeed set to tap $6 billion construction market in GCC

Source: PTI

Anticipating pick-up in demand in construction and road sector in the GCC region, industrialist Naveen Jindal feels Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel (JSIS) with its 1.4 MTPA rebar facility is all set to take advantage of the $6 billion market opportunity in the region. JSIS, a subsidiary of the steel-to-power group Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), has invested $1.2 billion to set up a 2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) steel melting shop and a 1.4 MTPA rebar mill at the industrial port city of Sohar in Oman. The firm, which boasts of the third largest steel plant in the GCC, hopes to beat competition from China and other steel-surplus nations to get a significant pie in the region’s $6 billion TMT bars market with the newly inaugurated rebar mill. Gulf Cooperation Council or GCC is a political and economic alliance of six nations Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to market analysts here, GCC requires around 15 million tonnes of steel annually. The current prices have gone up from $360-380 a tonne to $410-420 a tonne, which is a significant market in the region. Jindal’s rebar facility gives his organization firm inroads in this 15 MT market opportunity in the GCC region, of which around 3-4 MT is imported. "Unlike other producers in the region, we have an edge when it comes to the cost of production since this technology would allow us to produce TMT bars directly from the hot metal that comes out from the steel melting shops," Jindal told reporters in Muscat, Oman. He added the company through its specialised products (TMT bars) will get an edge over Chinese export of steel billets. "Having specialised products gives us an edge over imports here of billets from China. We are giving customers here better products," Jindal noted.

March 21, 2016 | 03:45pm IST