Harsco Corp. announced that its MultiServ division will expand its services to Saudi Arabia's growing steel industry with 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 (EAF) mill, due to be commissioned in the first quarter of this year, is expected to produce up to 850,000 tonnes of steel per year, providing steel billets to Al-Rajhi's hot rolling division mills in Jeddah and Riyadh.

Under two separate five-year contracts, MultiServ will expand its ongoing services at the Hadeed (Saudi Iron and Steel Co.) mill, assuming additional responsibilities for on-site raw-material handling and steel plant services. 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.

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% of total sales within the next few years, and measured against a steadily growing total sales base. These regions currently account for approximately 17% of Harsco's total sales.

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.

Hadeed is the Gulf Region's largest steel producer with an annual production output of more than four million tonnes.

Harsco Corp. 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.