OREANDA-NEWS. June 20, 2011. Endeavoring to expand its global footprint, Essar Steel Processing and Distribution - ESPD, part of Essar Steel, announces today the commissioning of service centre facility that will cater to the needs of customers in Middle East and neighboring regions.

This is the third facility after the one in the UK for the European region and one in Indonesia that cater to East Asian market. With this, ESPD has ramped up its international service centre capacity to One million ton per annum. 

Commenting on this facility, Mr. Vikram Amin, Executive Director (Sales & Marketing) said, “Middle East is a natural market for us since we are located on the west coast of India. The facility at Dubai is part of our distribution strategy to enhance our reach to customers and improve our customer centricity, reliability of delivery and thus supports us in becoming the steel maker of choice for large and small customers”

Set up as the most modern Steel Service Centre facility at Dubai, UAE, ESPDF has a   processing capacity of 250,000 tons per annum. Located in Jebel Ali Free Zone South, Dubai, UAE, the facility comprises three state- of- the- art hot rolled cut-to-length, HR Slitter & CR & GI Combination (Slitting & Cut-to-length) Line.

This facility will supply world class, mill guaranteed, quality products to customers in the region. Processed material will be shipped to countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain by road. For local customers of UAE who are presently entirely dependent on imports, ESPD Dubai will supply Just-In-Time deliveries.

With the advantage of port facilities, Essar Steel will make shipments from the single largest single location 10 MTPA plant at Hazira in Gujarat to the ESPDF at Dubai for providing custom made steel products to valuable clients. Besides, catering to Middle East region, the markets in the neighboring areas will also be explored by ESPDF Dubai.

ESPD, the flat steel processing arm of Steel Major Essar Steel is targeting to become 5 Million ton per annum capacity servicing chain. ESPD, the latest Sales channel of Essar Steel, envisions improving steel intensity in Indian infrastructure and is focused on customizing steel as per customer requirements in small lots and “Just in time”.

ESPD presently operates   3.3 mtpa capacity in India with 7 Service Centre, besides 1 mtpa capacity internationally with 3 Service centres. With such a network and plans to expand further, it is the dominant Steel Service Centre in India and is among the Top 10 Service Centres globally.

ESPD operates various equipment to process CR/HR/Galvanized/Pre-painted Coil and Plate Mill Plates. Its product range covers quarter of a millimeter to 200 millimeter in thickness and includes slit coils, blanks, welded beams, profile burnt plates and surface treatment.