Al-Tuwairqi owns a realm of companies in the steel industry, including a steel melt shop project, a downstream product factory and a UK steel company producing steel billets.

The Al-Tuwairqi Group is one of the leading industrial concerns in Saudi Arabia. Established in 1977 by Chairman Hilal Al-Tuwairqi, the group has grown exponentially since then, listing as one of Saudi Arabia’s top 50 companies in 1999.

While the Group’s main activity is trading and contracting, its various subdivisions deal with manufacturing steel and electrical products, providing information technology services, and distributing building materials and industrial supplies. Since 1999, the company has also been engaged in the sale, marketing and distribution of scientific and medical products.

Dr. Al-Tuwairqi is a living example of the values of honesty and perseverance. Trained in management at Aramco, he accepted a contracting job in 1978 after seeing a sportswear business go under. While engaged in a second, bigger contract to find and look after 450 people for the construction of a desalination plant, he and a partner came up with an environmentally-minded project to recycle petroleum waste. Unfortunately, oil prices slumped just as the business got going and the project was shelved. Third time proved lucky for
Dr. Al-Tuwairqi: in 1989 he purchased a disused and under-developed steel rolling factory and its accompanying license from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, prompted by the knowledge that there was only one company producing steel in Saudi Arabia at the time, and that there was room for competition.

Indeed, only a few years later the Al Ittefaq Steel Product Factory (ISPF) was producing 1,000 tons of steel angles every month. The company has gone from strength to strength, reflected in today’s production figures of one million tons a year and a 20% share of the market.

Al Tuwairqi Trading and Contracting is the group’s main entity, with a solid reputation and a wide range of products and services. The International Electrical Products Company (TIEPCO) has invested in modern engineering and technology and is now set to enter the export markets. The National Steel and Iron Factory (NSIF), set up in 2004, is a steel melt shop project that recycles scrap metal. Al-Faisal Steel Products Factory represents the downstream side of the steel industry, and is the biggest of its kind in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The group has also purchased Thamesteel Limited, a UK steel production company, primarily to cover a current lack of steel billets and the predicted increase in demand over the next five years.

Expansion in the international market is a logical progression for a company of these dimensions. In May this year, Al-Tuwairqi signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pakistani government to establish a $100-million steel billet plant in Karachi.

Medical division links to Western firms

Due to Saudi Arabia’s liberalized investor friendly policies and the boom in construction, the manufacture of steel has become a thriving industry. Al-Tuwairqi, a diversified business group based in Dammam, has interests in steel and steel products, electrical equipment and supplies, industrial supplies, building materials and information technology. As a result, the group is ranked as one of Saudi Arabia’s top 50 companies.

Group Chairman Hilal Al-Tuwairqi is a man of enterprise, always looking toward innovation and development, and since 1999, the company has also been engaged in the sale, marketing and distribution of scientific and medical products.

The Scientific and Med-ical Division (SMD) acts as a distributor for foreign manufacturers, and is constantly on the look out for opportunities to expand this aspect of the business. Negotiations with international companies are ongoing, but the group already represents companies from the U.S., the UK, France and Germany as their sole Saudi Arabian link.

A key element of the division is the workforce. The SMD is staffed by highly qualified and experienced sales, marketing and technical support professionals with many years of experience in the Saudi market. Al-Tuwairqi is currently in the process of expanding sale and marketing activities even further, and of extending the product base to medical equipment, analytical laboratory instruments and scientific and medical consumables. The company sees a robust future for itself in Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector thanks to its knowledge of the country’s market, and the trust and confidence it has earned from its clients, which include other major Saudi firms such as Aramco and SABIC.