Emirates Steel said on Tuesday that it set a production record at one of its plants, despite falling global steel prices and intense competition.
The company, which is owned by Abu Dhabi strategic conglomerate Senaat, said it produced just over 6,000 tonnes of beam blanks at its Steel Making Plant No 2 (SMP2) in the Mussaffah industrial area, located about 35 kilometres from Abu Dhabi city centre.
The daily output represents a world record for a steel plant of SMP2’s class, which is a 150-tonne electric arc furnace plant, Emirates Steel says.
The company said it sold just over 2.1 million tonnes of reinforcing steel bars known as rebar last year, a gain of 4.5 per cent from the previous year, 423,000 tonnes of wire rod, a 20 per cent increase, and 480,000 tonnes of heavy sections, which was 8 per cent lower.
The company does not report financial information publicly, but it said in a statement that last year it made a “positive net profit despite the difficult market environment while achieving cost figures that are below international benchmarks”.
The company mentioned a number of steps it had taken to increase operational efficiencies and meet customer needs and said it maintained market share of 70 per cent in the UAE, where it is the only integrated steelmaker, while “significantly expanding its exports business”.
Emirates Steel was founded in 1998 and expanded significantly five years ago with a US$3 billion investment adding two plants for a total production capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per year.
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