ArcelorMittal's Saudi unit to begin production next year

DUBAI: The world's largest steel-maker ArcelorMittal is expected to commence production at its new mill at Jubail, in Saudi Arabia, in the first half of 2012, a news report has revealed.

The USD 700 million plant will produce 600,000 metric tonnes of pipes a year for the oil and petrochemical industry, a report in Arabic daily Al-Watan said, citing Mohammed Al-Jabr, ArcelorMittal's Managing Director in Saudi Arabia.

The company plans to invest up to USD 3 billion in Saudi steel projects over the next five years and is conducting studies to build a factory north of Jubail at Ras Al-Khair, where the government is setting up a mining hub, Al-Jabr told the newspaper.

ArcelorMittal said in February, 2007, that it would hold 51 per cent in a joint venture with the Bin Jarallah group to construct a seamless tube plant in Jubail, which would fabricate 500,000 metric tonnes of steel tubes and pipes a year.