Ras Al Khaimah-based Mabani Steel, a leading pre-engineered steel buildings (PEBs) and hot-rolled steel structures (HRSS) specialist, has awarded Jeddah-based Azzam Contracting Company the civil, structural and architectural contract for its new factory in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

The MEP (mechanical, engineering and plumbing) contract for the same project is set to be awarded this month.
The Yanbu facility will have a monthly production capacity of 6,000 tonnes of PEBs and 2,000 tonnes of HRSS, which is equal to the capacity of the company's Ras Al Khaimah factory.
“Once the new facility is up and running, it will bring our total GCC-wide production capacity to 12,000 tonnes of PEBs and 4,000 tonnes of HRSS,” says Muayyad Khudairi, president of Mabani Steel. “This will make us the largest PEB producer in the GCC.”
The company’s Saudi output will cater to the markets of Saudi Arabia, North Africa and East Africa.
“West Africa will continue to be supported from our Ras Al Khaimah factory, which is currently the largest PEB/HRSS factory of its kind in the world,” he says.
Mabani Steel has also disclosed plans to begin the construction of two additional factories later this year, each with a production capacity of 3,000 tonnes of PEBs, in yet-to-be-announced locations. Engineering work for projects carried out by all new factories will be centralised in Ras Al Khaimah, according to the company.
Over the years, Mabani has extended its sales offices in the UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah), Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar and Riyadh), Oman (Muscat) and Pakistan (Karachi) and has announced plans to open similar offices in Qatar, Bahrain and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). The company also plans to open several sales offices in Africa later this year to ensure that the Yanbu factory reaches full capacity production in as short a time as possible.
Commenting on the company’s growing workforce, Khudairi says: “In the past two years alone, we have recruited 50 experienced structural steel engineers who have been operating as design, estimating, sales and sales support engineers. With greater growth planned, we will require to hire an additional 70 structural engineers in the next two years. However, a shortage of experienced structural engineers in the market has meant that we have to recruit and train fresh civil engineering graduates.
“To address the issue, we have built a training auditorium that can accommodate 60 trainees, within our Ras Al Khaimah facility and recruited a training manager who has 30 years experience in the design, estimating and sales of PEBs. Training will begin next month (July) and will be an ongoing exercise as we add more factories worldwide.”
Commenting on the uniqueness of the company’s production facilities, he says: “Our factories are rather unique for a steel manufacturer. Rather than produce all products in one super-large building, each product is produced in one of five individual buildings that are separated by 10-m-wide corridors. The first building houses the fabrication of built-up members, the heart of the PEB system. The second one fabricates the hot rolled members, while the third building houses the equipment to blast and paint the built-up members and hot rolled members. The fourth building produces cold formed members (including cladding) and a Buyouts Store for products that are produced by others and included in all PEB supplies such as anchor bolts, connection bolts, cable bracing components, sag rods, fibreglass and insulation accessories. The fifth building houses the maintenance workshop and maintenance store.
“Such an ideal design for a PEB facility, which is super-efficient and yet provides the most comfortable environment, has been developed using our three decades of experience,” says Khudairi. “We truly believe in the well-being of our employees and this is reflected in our Ras Al Khaimah facility which comprises our head office, the factory and the camp.”
Mabani Steel claims to have one of the fastest response mechanism to requests for quotations and one of the fastest deliveries of PEBs in the region.