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What are the main applications for your products?Hassan Samir: Attar Steel is focused on the business-to-business sector. We supply the con-struction and hardware industries, and general sheets and coils for various projects.

Mandeep Bhandari: Steel Masters International supplies the construction industry.

Our products are primarily used for roofing, cladding, fencing and air-conditioning (AC) ducting. Our prime customers include Zamil, Kirby and Mabani.

Nader Elhajj: Our main supply market is con-struction and our products are used mainly in labour residences, portable cabins and villas. Framecad doesn’t supply to the automotive or industrial sectors at the moment.

Globally we operate in 80 countries and in the Middle East, primarily in Abu Dhabi and Qatar. There are also high concentration mar-kets in Afghanistan, India, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America.

Raising the barMaged Mostafa: Genesis Manazil Steel Framing’s light-steel frame products are suita-ble for residential buildings up to eight storeys high, including schools, offices, small hotels and commercial plazas.

Muhammad Eissa: Our main applications are for industry, manufacturing and fabrication. Zamil Steel produces pre-engineered buildings, pre-fabricated housing and offers complete building systems.

We supply structural steel products and pro-cess equipment, power transmission and tele-communications towers, building components and open-web steel joists and decking.

Where is the highest demand? HS: The highest demand is in Saudi Arabia. The market requires galvanised sheets, stainless steel, perforated sheets and also decorative tubes and cable tubes.

MB: Our steel is being sold mostly to the UAE and Saudi Arabia; geographically we reach as

Few expected the steel industry to succumb to the price, demand and even political obstacles it has over the last 12 months. Despite the challenges, this month’s steel buffs say 2011 still looks hopeful

The Birds Nest stadium built for the Beijing Olympics used 45,000 tons of steel plate.

Zamil has supplied projects across the region.

ThE paNEl haSSaN SamiR

General manager, Attar Steel maNDEEp BhaNDaRi

Managing director, Steel Masters International Ltd NaDER Elhajj

Director Middle East and Africa, Framecad magED moSTafa

Chief executive officer, Genesis Manazil Steel Framing muhammaD EiSSa

General manager — steel devision, Zamil Group Holding

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far as Egypt, with 40 to 50% of our business coming from KSA and Egypt.

MM: In addition to our presence in the UAE, we export to and have light-steel construction activities in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and KSA. We’re looking into modular solutions for applications such as temporary high-end offices and labour residences. On top of this, we’re negotiating with prospective partners to expand into Syria, Egypt and Morocco.

How have demands for steel changed recently?HS: Demand is increasing, slowly. There are many factors and these depend on the region. In the Middle East everything is affected by poli-tics, especially in Lebanon where we are based. We also have branches in Saudi Arabia, but it is politically stable there so we see that continuing to be a strong market in the future.

MB: The UAE was our primary market but has

“When the market slowed, we supplied to new types of developments such as office buildings, hospitals, schools and so forth”

Maged Mostafa.Mandeep Bhandari.

Muhammad Eissa.

5%-6% ThE avEragE STEEL DEMaND iNcrEaSE yEar-ON-yEar iN ThE araB cOuNTriES

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tapered off and now we are concentrating on Saudi Arabia and North Africa; mostly Egypt and Sudan. We are also looking beyond the Middle East and North Africa region; going towards Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Iraq has strong potential, but there are problems with payments.

NE: Demand over the last few years has changed drastically, with some products increasing 50% year-on-year. This has been driven by the speed of construction; what nor-mally takes a year and a half you can now do within months. When the market slowed, we supplied new types of developments, such as office buildings, hospitals, schools and so forth.

ME: The Middle East is considered our core market as we continue to cover all parts of the region. During the 1990s, we expanded further afield to establish production facilities in Vietnam, Egypt, the UAE and India. The high-est demand for our products lies in all fields of industry in the GCC, particularly Saudi Arabia.

What are the most significant factors that are affecting your current operations?HS: In Lebanon the market fluctuates and this is, again, linked to politics, where as operations in Saudi Arabia are strong and there are gov-ernment strategies for expansions such as King Abdullah Economic City and universities in Jeddah and Riyadh.

Profile cutting during steel production.

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hassan Samir.

Nader Elhajj.

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MB: Since the financial crunch customers are becoming choosy because of immense competi-tion. As a result, our market share has fallen and we have worked very hard to give competi-tive rates. Customers still want good service which we are providing by reducing lead times.

NE: Advancements in technology have made life much easier, for example automated sys-tems. Our machines today are three times faster than our machines three years ago. This is not an industry-wide standard, but of course it typically translates into faster produc-tion times.

MM: We’re not prone to many market variables unlike traditional construction operations, as we follow the ‘lean’ manufacturing model. The only major factor that would affect our operation is steel price variations as a world-wide commodity.

3.8%chiNa iS ThE BiggEST STEEL PrODucEr iN ThE wOrLD, BuT Saw a DEcLiNE iN PrODucTiON OF 3.8% BETwEEN OcTOBEr 2009 aND 2010

$2.8bThE vaLuE OF ThE 45 wOrkiNg STEEL FacTOriES iN ThE MiDDLE EaST rEgiON

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How have fluctuations in prices and demand affected the business recently?HS: When the price increases, the market holds down and vice versa. To counter this we partici-pate in exhibitions, expand into new lines and increase our diversification in the business with new ideas. Last year we exported to Italy and the Far East for the first time.

MB: The effect can’t be quantified yet, but busi-ness has been very much affected, especially in terms of prices and competition.

NE: The effects in the region are minimal because of the dependence on steel; the market has no option.

If concrete is used, steel rebar is needed, so the impact is minimised.

MM: Fluctuations affect all businesses; how-ever, we try to mitigate that by diversifying our target vertical sectors including residential, commercial and institutional buildings alike, with regards to prices of commodities that we use as input to our production, including steel. As steel prices go up, it is a good indication that markets are recovering.

This means that, today, we have a better chance of winning more projects and enhanc-ing our economies of scale.

Currently, where are the major opportunities for 2011 in the market and wider industry?HS: The major opportunities are in Saudi Arabia, following up demand for new projects. I hope there will also be more opportunities coming up in the UAE.

MB: There is oversupply, which is clearly creat-ing problems and customers are now more price conscious than quality conscious. But there is strong growth in places like Saudi Arabia and we are concentrating more on the industrial sector, which is on the rise.

NE: The opportunities in this region are huge; our operations only just scratch the surface. In the future we are looking at putting satellite offices in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, these are growth areas for us.

There are always obstacles when doing this, such as people’s perceptions and gaining busi-ness approvals, but these exist in every market around the world.

MM: The year 2010 has not been an easy one, but the market shake-up has cleared the path for more serious developers, suppliers and con-tractors. Thanks to the wealth of natural resources and solid population growth, the region is in a relatively better position than

CoNSTRuCTioN TRivia • According to the World Steel

Association (WSA), Turkey and Iran

were the largest steel producers in

the Middle East in 2010

• Steel products can be recycled

repeatedly without loss of strength

• Recycling steel saves the equivalent

energy to power about 18 million

households for a year

• The amount of energy needed to

produce a ton of steel has been

reduced by 34% since 1972

• Global steel consumption is

estimated to have fallen by around

9% in 2009

• Steel was first used in skyscrapers

in 1883 and in cars in 1918

STEEl haS ThE highEST STRENgTh-To-WEighT RaTio, makiNg iT ThE STRoNgEST BuilDiNg maTERial availaBlE gloBally

“The year 2010 has not been an easy one, but the market shake-up has cleared the path for more serious developers, suppliers and contractors”

many other areas around the world. Demand is relatively stronger than other traditional mar-kets particularly for our light-steel and off-site construction system.

ME: Our major operations are within construc-tion, oil and gas and we are adopting a dynamic approach of moving swiftly in and out of mar-kets, depending on the risk or opportunities certain regions possess.

We are always looking to expand our pres-ence beyond the Middle East by supplying high-quality steel products and related services to an international client base.

67 ThE NuMBEr OF STEEL PLaNTS iN ThE araB rEgiON

Steel products exhibited on attar Steel’s stand at The Big 5 2010.