The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY) has signed a land allocation agreement with India’s Essar Group for the planned hot rolled coil plant to be located in Ras Al-Khair Industrial City, Saudi Arabia.

The allocated land spans across 3 million square meters. Ras Al-Khair Industrial City is located on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, 90km north of Jubail.

Essar Group signed in October a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s industry & mineral resources ministry for the hot strip mill construction.

The new facility will have two direct reduced iron plants each with 2.5 million tonnes/year of production capacity. Two electric arc furnaces will allow for production exceeding 3m t/y each of slab and HRC. There will also be a tin plate mill.

The investment aims to contribute to several industrial applications, such as automotive, heavy machinery, home appliances, military and marine industries. This is in addition to packaging, the gas and oil sector, energy-saving technologies and clean energy applications (see Kallanish passim).

The necessary studies are under development and commissioning of the plant is expected to be in early 2025.

The Saudi government’s National Steel Strategy aims to expand Saudi flat steel production, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

The plant would represent Essar’s second foray into steelmaking since it was forced to relinquish its circa 10m t/y capacity Indian flat steelmaking operation to ArcelorMittal following protracted bankruptcy proceedings in India. Earlier this year, it was picked by the Andhra Pradesh government to be the new joint venture partner for the prospective YSR Steel plant in Kadapa.