A ceremony will be held today (April 27) to mark the beginning of construction of a $1.2 billion (BD452 million) steel plant in Hidd.

It will be held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander.

The plant is being set up by United Steel Company (SULB), a joint venture between Bahrain-based Gulf United Steel Holding Company (Foulath) and Japan's Yamato Kogyo Company. Both were awarded contracts to set up the plant last month.

SULB chairman and managing director Khalid Al Qadeeri said commercial operations and the production of medium and heavy beams and structural sections would begin by the second half of 2012.

The Engineering Procurement and Construction contracts were won by Kobe Steel, Japan, and Midrex, the US. Midrex consists of three companies - SMS Meer, SMS Concast, Germany, and Samsung Engineering, Korea.-TradeArabia News Service