FROM humble beginnings close to four decades ago, the Hidayath Group of companies has made rapid strides first as a trader and then as a manufacturer to become a premier solutions provider in stainless steel that today earns almost 50 per cent of its revenues from export destinations as far as Australia.

Driven by its ambitions of providing total solutions for stainless steel across different industries and services, the group has grown into one of the region’s biggest manufacturers and traders in stainless steel products for the construction industry – and has no intention of resting on its laurels.

This year, the UAE-based company intends to expand its stock of carbon steel as well as open a trading facility in Oman, says Rehan Hidayath, commercial director and second son of the founder Hidayathulla Abbas, who first arrived in Dubai in 1968 as an employee on a minimum wage.

As part of its expansion plan, Hidayath will be introducing a new 600,000-sq-ft facility, 200,000 sq ft of which will be dedicated to the manufacturing of oil and gas-related products such as pressure vessels.

Headquartered in the Dubai Investment Park, the Hidayath Group of companies had its origins as Hidayath Hardware, a small single-shutter trading shop in Abu Dhabi set up by Abbas in 1976. The company’s trading activities grew to include carbon steel and eventually it became the first company to trade in stainless steel in the area.

Rehan ... on the expansion path.

Hidayath today employs 600 staff and operates from Abu Dhabi, four locations in Dubai, one location each in Sharjah and Qatar, and three in India. In 2012, the company opened its own office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, having previously conducted business in the kingdom for many years.

“We have the largest stainless steel service centre in the Middle East with six manufacturing units covering a total area of 2.3 million sq ft,” says Rehan.

Hidayath’s rapid expansion began in 1996 when the company launched its first stainless steel service centre. By 1999, it started exporting to the neighbouring GCC countries. 2010 marked another major milestone in its history when Hidayath opened a heavy stainless steel fabrication facility to produce structural steel products, pressure vessels, boilers, tanks, among other products.

Today, the UAE accounts for over 50 per cent of its sales while its exports reach the entire GCC, the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the CIS countries.

Recognised as a quality producer of finished stainless steel products, the company works across the GCC with some of the region’s best known design and construction names including Armani and Saudi Binladin Group, having become the main supplier of stainless steel products to the region’s construction industry.

The group’s four divisions – manufacturing, material supplies, project management of supplies and services – ensure that it is able to serve a range of requirements from architectural to industrial and it is now looking to develop its expertise into the energy industry.

The group’s manufacturing activities cater to the architectural and the industrial and engineering sectors.

Hidayath offers architectural manufacturing, trading and services, which covers design and engineering, material and finish selection, preparation of application procedures, testing, pickling and passivation, quality control and PVD (physical vapour deposition) colour coating using a range of metals including stainless steel, aluminium, galvanised iron, brass and copper. Its architectural range includes tubular products such as pipes, tubes, oval and groove pipes; fittings such as bathroom fittings and accessories; and handrail and glass accessories. Products are offered in mirror, brush, PVD, perforated, hairline and vibration finishes as well as with etched, embossed and marble designs.

Facade cladding ... fabricated by Hidayath.

Hidayath’s architectural manufacturing products have been supplied to hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, kitchen, railways, airports, universities and residential projects.

Its service division develops solutions using its expertise in design. Among the many services it offers are coil cut-to-length, coil slitting, sheets shearing, cutting, punching, blanking/drawing, rolling for flat products; milling and bending for round parts; and different types of surface finishes and welding.

In the industrial and engineering manufacturing segment, the company deals with carbon steel, stainless steel, Hastealloy, Inconnel, Monel and Cu-Ni where its products are used in sectors such as food and beverages, power and desalination, petrochemical and refinery, pharmaceuticals, structural, maritime and shipbuilding, and water treatment. Applications include pressure and filter vessels, reactors, air filtration, heat exchangers, pipelines, different skids, process piping, stadiums, heavy industrial stacks, bridges, and silos, among others.

Group companies include the trading arm Hidayath Trading Company; Hadaya Engineering and Metal Services, whose products are specified for cladding, facades, interiors of lobbies, airport concourses, lift interiors and fast-food equipment; Al Hashimi Metal Products Manufacturing, which offers solutions for bathroom, handrail and architectural fittings, gratings, high security furniture, stainless steel doors, bollards, and bespoke architectural products; Hidayath Heavy Industry (HHI), which caters primarily to the structural product needs of the industrial sector such as pressure vessels, boilers and tanks; Hidayath Stainless Steel, the UAE’s first stainless steel tube mill and the largest of its kind in the Middle East with in-house slitting line, annealing and testing facilities, capable of producing ERW (electric resistance welding) pipes and hollow-sections up to 4 inches in thickness; and Hidayath Stainless Steel, Qatar, and Saudi Hidayath, both of which specialise in the trading and distribution of high-quality stainless steel products.

Hidayath ensures high-quality finishes.

Early this year, Hidayath launched a new division that specialises in structural, pressure vessels, heavy-duty skids, pipelines and other various industrial fabrications. The Industrial Fabrication division is located on a 300,000-sq-ft area in Dubai Industrial City and employs a highly skilled and qualified workforce of 100 members.

“Our Industrial Fabrication division has kick-started with a number of prestigious projects in hand including structural fabrication for the expansion of the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia,” says a spokesman for the company, adding that it is also currently engaged in fabrication of 49 pressure vessels for various clients.

He says the facility is running at maximum capacity and is looking forward to expand rapidly.

“The division provides services including cut-to-length of stainless steel plates up to 12 mm – the only one of its kind in the region – which helps our customers save on money and material. It also undertakes plasma cutting, CNC perforation (punching), waterjet cutting, pickling and passivation and much more,” he says.

Meanwhile, another member of the group HHI has been making strong inroads into production and industrial engineering for the upstream, downstream and midstream sectors. HHI recently completed an important project involving the testing of high pressure skid lines with 430.5 barg (6,244 psi).

The project involved high-pressure critical piping (31 m pipe-routing) in a small allotted skid area (4 sq m) connected with maximum industrial high pressure-rated flanges and valves (2500 RTJ) in line with stringent client/project specifications.

Its key recent projects include the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University in Madinah, Jeddah and Riyadh, Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh, Saudi National Guard housing projects, Prophet’s Mosque expansion in Madinah, King Abdullah Financial District, and Hilton Hotel, all in Saudi Arabia; Doha International Airport and a Qatar Foundation project in Qatar; Kuwait International Airport in Kuwait; Seeb International Airport and Salalah airport expansion in Oman; and Louvre Museum, Dubai International Airport Terminal Four and Terminal One extension, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) headquarters and Dubai Tram, all in the UAE.