Top fabricator Hidada says its progress as a key provider of steel products mirrors the economic development of Saudi Arabia.

As the kingdom’s infrastructure and industrial requirements grew with increasing oil wealth, Hidada stepped up its capacity from time to time to help meet the demands of that growth.
Hidada, a wholly Saudi-owned subsidiary of Xenel Industries, today has an annual fabrication capacity of 200,000 tonnes, making it a stalwart player in the kingdom’s fabrication industry. The company is expanding its existing seven specialist plants in Jeddah Industrial City, near Jeddah Islamic Port, and setting up new facilities in Yanbu.
It has acquired 300,000 sq m of waterfront land in Yanbu for facilities to produce process equipment.
Work at its Jeddah facilities includes designing, fabricating and erecting steel structures for the power generation, water desalination, oil and gas, petrochemical, defence and aviation industries.
The fabricated products also go to seaports, high-rise buildings and factories including those engaged in metal smelting.
Hidada undertakes turnkey projects for storage tanks required by a range of industries.  Its scope includes the preparation of detailed designs as per specifications, material supplies, installation and pre-commissioning.
The company also fabricates power transmission and telecommunication towers and lighting poles. Its product range covers gratings, cable support systems, heaters, pressure vessels, air ducts, steel chimneys, boilers, cranes and blast-proof doors.
“A state-of-the-art monitoring system called Centralised Engineering and Operation System (Ceos) allows customers to know in detail the progress of their projects from anywhere on earth via the internet,” marketing official Omar Fetini said.
“All Hidada factories are linked by fibre optic cable for the integrated Ceos operations. Hidada has adopted the strategy of modernisation and expansion in order to withstand competition from multi-national companies entering the Saudi Arabian market.”
The company hopes to attract more business from the industrial and construction boom in the petrochemical and oil and gas sectors of Saudi Arabia.
In the kingdom, Hidada has forged a close relationship with Saudi Aramco and Sabic, having worked on many of their prestigious projects. It has also worked with the Saudi Electricity Company for overhead transmission line towers and distribution/lighting poles.

Quality assurance
The company stresses it is committed to total quality management. In addition to the ISO 9001:2000 certification for work connected to the erection of steel products and storage tanks, it is certified to ASME (‘U’ ‘U2’ ‘PP’ ‘S’ ‘A’) stamps for the manufacture of pressure vessels, fabrication and assembly of pressure piping, manufacture and assembly of boilers and assembly of power boilers on site. In April 2007 it achieved certification to National Board’s “R” Stamp & Certificate.

Diversified markets
Hidada’s markets have diversified. As well as the local market, its products have penetrated the US, Mexico, Chile, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Spain, Africa and Asia, often against stiff competition. 
The company says its aim now is to become the leading structural steel supplier in Africa, Europe and the Americas. 
It is already one of the biggest suppliers of tower material to Libya and Egypt and has world-renowned EPC contractors as its main customers.  These include Alstom Power, Bechtel, Balcke Durr, Chiyoda Corp, Fluor Corp, Foster Wheeler, Hamon Thermal, Hyundai Engineering, IHI, MHI, Mitsui Engineering, Siemens, Snamprogetti, Shaw/Stone & Webster, Technip, Tecnicas Reunidas, Uhde and Voest Alpine.
One of its major projects of recent years was undertaken for Saudi Aramco and completed in 2006. It was a turnkey contract for storage tanks at bulk plants in the northwest and southwest of Saudi Arabia.  The scope of work covered the design, fabrication, supply, erection, testing and painting of 11 storage tanks. Hidada’s additional scope involved civil works for tank foundation and tie-in works.
Projects it was recently involved with include Emal’s (Emirates Aluminium) first package, Khurais KUC, Qurayyah Seawater Plant, Khursaniyah producing facilities and 34.5kV Khurais transmission line towers for Saudi Aramco.
It also worked on the Rabigh PC2 (MEG) unit and the Rabigh Refinery expansion for Petro-Rabigh; Yansab Petrochemcial Complex for Sabic; Zeoforming Mogas Storage Facility for Safra, Yanbu; Jamnagar Refinery Complex at Gujarat for Reliance India, and the Whiting Plant project for Praxair in Indiana (USA).
It was also contracted for the 380 kV Shoaiba-2 transmission line towers and 380 kV Jeddah North transmission line towers for SEC (West); 400 kV Wadi Rabie – Elrwais and Sirte – Agdabia-Benghazy transmission lines towers for GECOL Libya; telecommunication towers for Orascom Algeria, Iraq and Omantel/Oman mobile services; telecommunication towers and monopoles for Emirates Integrated Telecoms Co of the UAE and distribution poles for SEC West and East.
Talking about current business conditions, Fetini says the Saudi market is flooded with projects from Saudi Aramco, Saudi Electricity Company, Sabic and other major private investors. 
“Project owners have already announced more than $150 billion worth of projects in various sectors for the next five years.  Saudi Aramco and private investors in the power and petrochemical sectors own a large portion of those.  With this, the demand for steel in the region is very high at present but construction and fabrication companies are facing a supply shortage.  Many GCC countries depend on companies located in Europe, Asia and the Far East for raw material.”

Big staff
Thanks to an expansion of facilities and the volume of work needing to be done, the company has a workforce of more than 2,000 consisting of Americans, Europeans, Arabs, Asians and Africans.  “The company initiated a drive to employ more local citizens and it paid off as about 23 per cent of the staff are now Saudis,” said Fetini.