Aramco and PIF set up JV to build steel plant with China’s Baosteel

Aramco and PIF set up JV to build steel plant with China’s Baosteel

Aramco and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) have signed an agreement with Chinese steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel Company (Baosteel) to build a steel plate manufacturing complex in Saudi Arabia. The energy giant said the steel manufacturing base has a designed annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of direct reduced iron and 1.5 million tonnes of steel plate. “The kingdom’s first steel plate production facility is expected to enhance Saudi Arabia’s steel industry ecosystem and improve supply chain localisation,” said Amin H. Nasser, Aramco president and CEO. The steel manufacturing venture will build a steelmaking manufacturing plant in Ras al-Khair Industrial City, one of the four new special economic zones that were recently unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. Aramco said the joint venture is combining its unrivalled energy and industrial services ecosystem, Baosteel’s advanced steel plate industry capability and PIF’s strong financial capabilities and investment expertise. The production facility will be equipped with a natural gas-based direct reduced iron furnace and an electric arc furnace, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the steel-making process by up to 60 per cent compared to the blast-furnace-based steelmaking process, Aramco