Emirates Steel Endorses Country's Sustainability Goals By Purchasing Local Scrap Material For Steel Production

Emirates Steel today announced its continued efforts to support trade and business in the UAE through purchasing local scrap material for use as feed stock in its production process.

In a statement Tuesday, Emirates Steel said it is committed along with other steel producers to purchase all local scrap according to international prices. The company also confirmed its willingness to purchase more than 1 million tonnes of scrap material on an annual basis.

The announcement follows a recent decision by the Ministry of Economy to prohibit all concerned and registered facilities in the UAE from exporting iron scrap. The decision seeks to help local production facilities maintain business continuity and also promotes domestic production through ensuring that producers in the country have easy access to raw material supplies locally for their manufacturing operations.

As a complex integrated manufacturing plant that employs cutting-edge solutions to tackle traditional industrial challenges, Emirates Steel said it uses direct reduced iron, DRI, and ferrous scrap as the main feedstock for its electric arc furnaces.

Currently, scrap accounts for 30 percent of the raw material in the company’s Steel Making Plant One, SMP1. Today, the company said it aims to increase the usage of scrap as feedstock for other steel making plants especially with the surge of iron-ore prices. In 2017, Emirates Steel successfully commissioned its 3,000 Horsepower Steel Scrap Shredding Facility to feed the electric arc furnaces of its steel making plants. The facility plays a key role in recycling steel scrap generated in the UAE while mitigating waste.

Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, CEO of Emirates Steel, said, "As it continues to service key sectors of the UAE economy, including construction, energy and transportation, Emirates Steel is proud to support local traders around the country in sustaining their businesses. In addition, our synergies enable Emirates Steel to recycle scrap and advance the UAE’s sustainability goals."

Al Remeithi added, "The company is committed to supporting the steel industry value chain and will ensure we stand by the Ministry of Economy decision to prevent the export of scrap materials that are considered prime feedstock in manufacturing steel. Moreover, as scrap is turned into an added value product, manufacturers are forced to import it from abroad at high prices because it is an important component in many industries. Currently the local steel industry needs the entire local scrap business to sustain its operations."

Al Remeithi concluded, "The steel industry plays a vital role in the economy and supports the Abu Dhabi economic diversification strategy, which aims to increase the output of manufacturing the emirate."

The company said that in 2019, it only used 280,000 tonnes of scrap material due to difficulties in sourcing this vital material form the local market. Currently, the UAE is Asia’s second largest scrap exporter after Japan, and accounts for 1.6 percent of the world’s ferrous scrap export. Among the UAE’s top scrap importing partners are India (31 percent), Pakistan (25 percent), and Oman (11 percent). The UAE has a scrap reserve of 1.5 million tonnes per annum.