Zamil Steel's Building Manufacturing Facility Starts Operation in India

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Zamil Steel Industries (ZSI) (Dammam, Saudi Arabia) has started operation of the company's first facility in India to manufacture pre-engineered buildings. The manufacturing unit required an investment of $32 million and is located in Ranjangaon near Pune, Maharashtra. The plant, spread across 87,000 square meters, has an installed production capacity of 3 million square meters of pre-engineered buildings per year. The company will initially employ 350 people and is expected to service clients such as The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) (Atlanta, Georgia) and The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) (Cincinnati, Ohio) among others.

ZSI chose Ranjangaon, located about 34 miles from Pune, to set up the manufacturing unit because of the proximity to both Pune and Mumbai. Also, the booming construction activity in Pune and the assistance of the Maharashtra government in land acquisition were other reasons for choosing the area. The manufacturing unit began trial production in December 2007 and has been supplying since then to customers in Jamshedpur, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

ZSI has plans to start a second manufacturing facility in India by 2010-11. The location has not been finalized, but is likely to be in the country's southern region. Financial investment in the second unit is expected to be similar to the Ranjangaon plant. The company also plans to start three other divisions: decking; tower, galvanizing and canam joists; and structural steel in India soon.

ZSI has been supplying pre-engineered buildings to India since 1994. In 1999, ZSI set up an engineering unit in Chennai. ZSI also has an advanced engineering center in Kochi, Kerala. The company has executed 38 projects in India and has 42 orders on hand. Pre-engineered buildings are suitable for construction of commercial projects, industrial buildings, aviation and military units and recreational spaces. Globally, ZSI has executed more than 50,000 pre-engineered buildings projects in 92 countries.

ZSI is one of the business divisions of the $1.4 billion Zamil Industrial Investment Company (SAU:2240) (ZIIC) (Dammam). The other divisions are Zamil Glass Industries, Zamil Air Conditioners and Arabian Fibre Glass Insulation Company Limited. ZIIC entered into a joint venture agreement with Steel Plus (Saint-Georges, Quebec), part of Canam Group Incorporated (TSX:CAM) (Saint-Georges, Quebec) to manufacture floor decks and open-web steel joists. The joint venture company Canam Asia Limited (Dammam) is operated by ZSI. ZIIC was established in 1977 and employs 9,500 people in 55 countries.

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