Posted on 06 Dec 2022
Sohar-based Jindal Shadeed (JSIS) has signed a land allocation agreement for its new flat steel manufacturing plant in Oman’s Special Economic Zone in Duqm (Sezad), together with a memorandum of understanding for natural gas supply to the plant.
The new works will be designed for producing “green” steel and is to be built in two phases. The first phase should be completed in 2026, with an investment cost of $3 billion, to produce 3 million tonnes of flats annually, including thin gauges of hot rolled coil. The second phase is scheduled to commence production by 2030, bringing up capacity to 4-4.5m t/year, Kallanish learns.
JSIS produces up to 2.4m t/y of longs in Oman’s Sohar port and 1.8mt of direct reduced iron through one module. The company is the largest longs supplier in Oman and exports special grade billet, round billet and rebar to the Far East, Turkey and Europe.
“The signing of the MoU and agreement is a testament to the importance of the Sezad and further reinstates its position as a leading and attractive destination for large strategic projects that will benefit from renewable energy and green hydrogen,” says JSIS chief executive Harssha Shetty.
"About 30-40% of the production from Jindal Shadeed’s new plant will be consumed within Oman and the Gulf Cooperation Council region. The remaining will be exported to meet booming green steel demand in the global markets. The plant will cater to auto, wind turbine and consumer goods industries across Europe, Japan, and other countries,” Shetty adds.
"Demand for flat steel products in the GCC region is expected to jump to more than 11 million tonnes by 2030 from about 7.3 tonnes last year,” he concludes.
Oman’s strategic green hydrogen project, which is run by Hyport Duqm company, signed a land reservation agreement with the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz) in late 2021. Hyport Duqm is a joint venture between Belgium’s DEME Concessions and OQ Alternative Energy. In the first phase, Hyport Duqm will develop a 250-500MW green hydrogen facility in Sezad, planned to come into operation in 2026 (see Kallanish passim).
It is currently completing the installation and commissioning of four meteorological wind masts and two meteorological solar stations within the reserved area of 150km2, located in the southern part of Sezad.
In late June, Opaz signed a land development agreement with Green Hydrogen and Chemicals Company (GHC), a joint venture between the UK entity of ACME Company and Norway-based Scatec ASA. According to the agreement, GHC will begin developing the first phase of a project over 12km2 of land to produce 100,000 t/y of green ammonia in Sezad. Once fully developed, the project is expected to produce up to 1.2m t/y of green ammonia.
Source:Kallanish
