HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Worldwide industrial services and products company Harsco Corporation (NYSE:HSC) announced today that its MultiServ division will expand its services to Saudi Arabia's growing steel industry after winning three new contracts valued at more than $34 million over their duration.
Under a new five-year contract, MultiServ has been selected to provide a range of scrap management and material processing services at the Al-Rajhi Steel meltshop now under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The new Electric Arc Furnace mill, due to be commissioned in the first quarter of this year, is expected to produce up to 850,000 tons of steel per year, providing steel billets to Al-Rajhi's hot rolling division mills in Jeddah and Riyadh. Al-Rajhi Steel Industries is a leading producer of merchant long products and commercial and cold rolled steel serving the Middle East construction and infrastructure markets.
Under two separate five-year contracts, MultiServ will expand its ongoing services at the Hadeed (Saudi Iron and Steel Company) mill, assuming additional responsibilities for on-site raw material handling and steel plant services. Hadeed is the Gulf Region's largest steel producer with an annual production output of more than four million tons. MultiServ's contracts call for the operation and support of two mill-owned dockside gantry cranes to offload incoming iron ore from ocean-going ships, and the monitoring and maintenance of the mill's eight mile (approximately 13 km) conveyor belt system which transports the ore to the steel plant. The conveyor services contract reflects MultiServ's expanding capabilities for providing conveyor belt management services, an outgrowth of Harsco's acquisitions in 2005 and 2006 of two leading providers of conveyor belt management and maintenance services to the steel industry and other industrial clients. A typical integrated steelworks can have as many as 40 to 50 miles of conveyor belts on its premises. MultiServ will also assume responsibility for the regular processing and clean-out of Hadeed's steelmaking ladles, tundishes and Electric Arc Furnace refractories, taking over work previously performed by a local contractor, and before that, by the mill itself.
The new contracts add to the more than $100 million in new MultiServ mill service contract awards announced by Harsco within the past several months, including new contracts at mills in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. The awards are consistent with Harsco's stated strategic objectives for expanding its overall presence in the Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions to a targeted 30 percent of total sales within the next few years, and measured against a steadily growing total sales base. These regions currently account for approximately 17 percent of Harsco's total sales.
Harsco Corporation is a diversified, worldwide company with four market-leading business groups that provide mill services, access services, engineered products and services, and gas containment and control technologies to customers around the globe. The Company employs approximately 21,000 people in 45 countries of operation. Harsco's common stock is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 1000 Index. Additional information about Harsco, including its MultiServ mill services division, can be found at www.harsco.com.
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