Abu Dhabi's Emirates Steel Industries forges ahead with expansion

Emirates Steel Industries, the Abu Dhabi government-owned mill, said it raised capacity by a third to 2.8 million tonnes of liquid metal a year after completing part of a $2.45 billion (Dh8.8bn) expansion.

Units built in the Phase 2A expansion, commissioned in March 2011, increased capacity for a product known as direct reduced iron to 3.2m tonnes a year, the company said in an e-mailed statement today.

A 1m-tonnes-a-year heavy-sections mill will use the liquid feedstock when completed at the end of this year as part of the Phase 2B expansion, the company said.

Emirates Steel had capacity of 2.1m tonnes of liquid steel a year before the Phase 2 expansion, the company said.