Saudi-based Zamil Steel, considered a global leader in the manufacture of pre-engineered steel buildings and the Middle East's premier supplier of steel structures, transmission and telecommunications towers, open web steel joists and floor deckings, has added Iceland to its list of international export markets following the recent completion of a 1.2 million euro ($1.38 million) contract to supply nine pre-engineered steel buildings (PEBs) to the north-western European nation.

The project involved the design of steel buildings to meet Iceland's environmental climate; local building codes and specifications; detailing and manufacturing the buildings; and shipping them to the Icelandic port of Reydarfjordur within a tight timeframe of five weeks from the date of the contract.

'This project has demonstrated one of the competitive advantages that we possess - in being present globally with multi-source operations - without which we would not have been able to meet our customer's requirements,' said Ziad Yamak, Zamil Steel's area manager in Athens, Greece.

The project to deliver the buildings to an end user in Iceland was secured by Zamil's sales office in Athens for a repeat client in Italy. 'In order to accommodate the strict delivery schedule for this 725-tonne project, which is approximately 6,000 sq m in area, our Saudi, Egypt and India operations collaborated together, each taking part of the work load that would fit in their ongoing busy operation schedule. Since our internal engineering and production systems are so flexible, it didn't really matter which Zamil Steel operation would do the design, the detailing or the fabrication of the buildings,' he added.

The structural design of the buildings was completed by Zamil Steel's engineering group in Saudi Arabia. Zamil Steel's engineering group in India undertook detailing work on the buildings, while the production took place at Zamil Steel's factories in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

'Zamil Steel's engineering and production operations in three countries dovetailed their respective activities to accelerate the delivery cycle time by using its internal technology systems. These include 'eZ-Build' - electronic Zamil Steel Buildings System - a proprietary software solution that allows sales teams across the world to estimate and design buildings, and to submit detailed proposals and drawings within hours of receiving client requests; and the Project Information System (PIS), which enables Zamil Steel's 400 engineers employed in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India as well as in Jordan and Vietnam to remotely share estimating and engineering activities using the world wide web,' said Fadi Mujahed, Marketing Manager, Zamil Steel,  PEBs.

The PEB unit is the oldest and the largest of four business units at Zamil Steel, which also includes the Structural Steel Unit; the Towers and Galvanising Unit;  and Canam Asia Limited, a joint venture between Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC) and Steel Plus Limited, a subsidiary of Canam Manac Group (Canada).