IIB's steel plant (UNIROL) commences production

The Universal Rolling (UNIROL) plant, located in the Hidd Industrial Area, is based on a state-of-the-art technology in steel rolling and manufacturing, and the factory's production capacity is 200,000 tons per annum. After obtaining recent Government approvals, UNIROL has successfully commenced commercial supplies to the local market including some sales to high profile projects in the country.

Mr. Al-Zeera, Chief Executive Officer of IIB commented:

"IIB's investment strategy is driven not only by the potential of generating superior risk adjusted returns for our shareholders and investors but also the need to develop, enhance, strengthen the industrial and production capabilities of the Kingdom and the GCC region and make it less dependent on imports of critical raw materials required for the growing infrastructure and construction sectors of Bahrain. At full production, we expect that the plant will considerably replace the current imports of rebars into the Kingdom."

Mr. Al-Zeera added: "While attaining these key objectives, the strategy also results in increased employment for Bahrainis, a key policy objective of the Kingdom. I am proud to announce that Bahrain's first steel rebar plant currently employs 140 staff across all departments of the plant and this number is set to increase to 200 upon the successful ramp up of the capacity, over the coming months, to the plants designed capacity. Staff training in technical, marketing, finance as also other development initiatives have been launched and we expect to see positive and sustainable results from the efforts of UNIROL's management in this regard".

The Managing Director of UNIROL Mr. Mazen Almahroos expressed his appreciation to the Kingdom's governmental agencies and stated: "The commencement of production at our plant comes after big efforts made jointly by our team of Bahrainis and expats in addition to the support received from governmental agencies that made our success possible".

Among the Bank's industrial offerings are also the first sugar refinery Arabian Sugar Company B.S.C.(c), also based on a state-of-the-art technology in Bahrain and a tissue paper factory (Queenex) in Abu Dhabi. The Bank is also expanding its market coverage and depth with other investment offerings in Private Equity and Real Estate across GCC countries, Europe, Central Asia and lately North Africa.