Gladstone steel for Saudi rail
Gary Thompson | 11th June 2009
http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/...06/11/gladsto…
A COMPANY proposing to build a steel plant in Gladstone has plans to sell its product to Saudi Arabia.
Boulder Steel and the directors of Arabia for Business Strategies have signed a letter of intent to jointly develop a rail and heavy beam plant in Saudi Arabia.
The plant will have a 500,000 tonne per annum capacity and will be supplied with billets and blooms from Boulder's iron and steel plant the partners intend to develop in Gladstone.
The Gladstone plant has been granted significant project status in Queensland.
Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Stirling Hinchcliffe said two months ago the co-ordinator general would provide a streamlined approvals process across the whole of government and require the project to undergo a rigorous environmental impact assessment.
The proposed steel-making facility in Gladstone has the potential to create 1500 construction jobs and 1150 long-term jobs in the city.
It is also believed the project would create around 1800 jobs in total across central Queensland.
The company is expected to have an initial export capacity of 2.1 million tonnes per annum.
The company expected to generate export revenue through significant increases to locally sourced raw materials including a large coke-making facility.
The project is to be developed in two stages with the initial 2.1mt of steel product ready in late 2012 and increasing to 5mt per annum in the second stage.
Boulder Steel is an Australian-based company engaged in metal products manufacturing and the development of a steel infrastructure project.
The joint decision with its Arabian partners to develop a rail and heavy beam plant in Saudi Arabia is estimated to cost $US 220 million and would produce high-strength rails to meet the demand of Saudi railways.
The plant would have the capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes of which 200,000 tonnes would be rail products and 300,000 tonnes of heavy sections and that a significant percentage of rails would be head-hardened.
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