Saudi Arabia's Al-Tuwairqi group confirmed on Tuesday it planned to invest $1 billion in Yemen to build steel and power plants. Chairman Hilal Al-Tuwairqi said on the sidelines of a steel conference the Yemen steel plant would have a capacity of 5 million tons of liquid steel. “In addition to that, we will build a rolling mill which will produce 1 million tonnes of rebar annually,” he said. The investment would include installation of a power plant as Yemen lacked the necessary infrastructure, he said. Yemen's official news agency, Saba, reported the scale of the investment on March 31 but gave no details of the plants. Al-Tuwairqi said he expected the plants to be operational by 2011. The group also planned to invest in Qatar, Algeria and Egypt in the coming years, Al-Tuwairqi said, adding that the group wanted eventually to become self-sufficient in raw materials. “We don't want to rely on other people who have the pricing power. They will keep controlling the prices,” he said. Steelmakers are facing massive production costs as the price of iron ore, a key steel making ingredient, has risen by at least 65 percent in annual contract negotiations. Coking coal prices have also risen significantly this year. “Currently, we're unfortunately importing the iron ore. In three years' time we would like to become an exporter,” he said. __
