Dubai Investments (DI) and Abu Dhabi National Company for Building Materials (Bildco) have formed a joint venture to build a steel plant in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi.

The AED250m ($68m) plant is expected to go on stream by the end of 2017 with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of reinforced steel bars. The plant will be located at Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) 3.

The new joint venture is 51 per cent owned by DI subsidiary Dubai Investment Industries with Bildco holding the remaining 49 per cent stake.

DI said that the UAE steel sector has seen an upswing in the last few years and is expected to grow by 5 per cent in the next three-to-four years driven by growing demand from the oil & gas and construction sectors, with an expected surge from Dubai’s Expo 2020 infrastructure developments.

The head of metals at Saudi Arabia’s Sabic – the region’s largest steel producer – told MEED in April that demand for steel in the region is picking up after a downturn in 2014 and 2015.