Abu Dhabi Ports has signed Standard Musataha Agreement (SMA) with Al Gharbia Pipe Company to open a new pipe manufacturing facility at Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) to cater to region’s oil and gas industry
The state-of-the-art facility will manufacture high quality, sour grade longitudinal submerged arc welding (LSAW) steel pipes.
The deal will see Al Gharbia Pipe Company invest a projected total of US$299.5mn, with their new facility requiring a plot size of 200,000 sq m.
Al Gharbia Pipe Company, a joint venture between UAE’s Senaat and two of Japan’s leading steel firms, JFE Steel Corporation and Marubeni-Itochu Steel Inc. (MISI), expects the facility to be completed by March 2018.
The plant will employ over 370 staff and produce up to 240,000 tonnes of steel pipe a year.
Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, said, “The exceptional infrastructure and transportation network offered by Kizad will make a significant difference to Al Gharbia’s business operations.
“The new facility will create business opportunities and jobs in the Emirate, directly supporting Abu Dhabi’s vision of a diversified economy.”
Al Gharbia Pipe Company will utilise Kizad’s Modular Path, integrated with Abu Dhabi’s highway network to enable the movement of large loads and structures to the city and throughout the rest of the emirate and region as a whole.
Jamal Salem Al Dhaheri, acting CEO at Senaat, noted that the agreement will provide for significant supply chain efficiencies.
“By housing our production facilities at a strategic location like Kizad, we will be able to utilise a range of world-class services and infrastructure which will allow us to improve delivery time and service to our customers in the region” he said.
According to Takafumi Nishiuma, vice-president of JFE Steel, with the ongoing growth of the oil and gas sector in the region, the demand for high-quality steel pipes was expected to expand steadily.
“We see huge opportunities in this market and in particular in the UAE.”
