PMV: What is your role at Q Steel?
Dhairya Narayan Jha: I am the founder and general manager of Q Steel, the Gulf representative for NLMK Europe and the products manufactured at its plate mills in Clabecq, Belgium. We supply hot-rolled steel plates, including those sold under the brand names Quard and Quend.
PMV: How’s business?
DNJ: Q Steel is enjoying gradual growth, despite the lacklustre nature of the global steel industry. Luckily, there are a number of relevant projects taking place in the Middle East market at present. As you’d imagine, there is demand from the oil and gas sector and we also see business being generated by Expo 2020. There is a growing need for construction-related steel, and Quard and Quend are benefitting from this.
PMV: Could you outline some of the main products offered by Q Steel?
DNJ: NLMK Europe’s Clabecq mill in Belgium produces both Quard and Quend products. The former are wear-resistant steel plates whereas the latter are high-tensile steel plates. Of course, we are also able to supply plates for general applications, but the Quard and Quend products are particularly suited to specialist use.
PMV: What are the typical applications of the steel plates that you supply?
DNJ: Quard plates are ideal for the production of equipment attachments that have to withstand a high degree of wear and tear. If you were to use an average steel plate to produce an excavator bucket, for example, the life of that product would be very short. Due to the quenching and tempering processes employed during the manufacture of these plates, Quard products are suitable for these unforgiving applications.
Since Quend plates have high-tensile strength, they allow manufacturers to produce lightweight products by reducing the thickness of the steel that they use. These plates are especially suited to the production of tippers and crane booms, for example.
PMV: In which countries is demand highest?
DNJ: Demand is highest in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. However, different projects are being announced all the time, so we see potential in all GCC markets. Last month, for example, we received an order from a major fabricator working on the Sohar refinery. There are plenty of projects taking place in other GCC countries that also look extremely promising.
PMV: What are Q Steel’s major priorities for the coming year?
DNJ: We intend to increase the share of LMNK Europe’s products with growth above the market rate. To grow in line with the market is a very natural expectation. However, due to the quality of the products that we are offering, we are confident that we can take business that would otherwise go to our Japanese and Korean competitors. We also anticipate that our range will expand, with the introduction of products such as armour plating. Of course, our Belgian colleagues will decide when this happens.
