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Published on October 15, 2007

George Kobrossy, the company's general director based in Vietnam, said Zamil chose to build a new factory in Thailand because it wanted to better serve its many local clients.

"We have had a very successful sales office here since 2000," he said.

Zamil Steel, he said, has in the past 30 years become one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of top-quality pre-engineered steel buildings for factories, warehouses, workshops, distribution centres, showrooms, aircraft hangars, schools, sports centres, supermarkets, office buildings, car-parking sheds and virtually any one, two or three-storey building.

"We are privately owned and were founded in 1977 in Dammran, Saudi Arabia," he said.

Kobrossy, who is Lebanese, said Zamil Steel had built more than 45,000 steel buildings in more than 85 countries. "We have constructed buildings from Panama to Mexico and from Vietnam to Japan," he said.

The company prefabricates steel factory structural components that are shipped by containers all over the world to sites. "At Zamil Steel, we have designed and fabricated pre-engineered steel buildings that range in complexity from a simple warehouse to a 95-metre clear-span aircraft hangar and a 4,500-tonne complex steel rolling mill," he said.

Although Zamil has set up sales organisations in many Asian countries over more than a decade, its business really skyrocketed after 1997 when it established a joint venture in Vietnam with Japanese trading-giant Mitsui.

"We had been operating in Vietnam since 1993 and our joint venture with Mitsui was in a 100-per-cent foreign-owned company "Kobrossy said.

Zamil and Mitsui built a state-of-the-art factory that is capable of producing 50,000 tonnes of steel buildings per year. "To date, Zamil Steel Vietnam has produced more than 1,500 steel buildings across Southeast Asia," he said.

The company has built factories for major Japanese companies such as Yamaha, Toyota and Fujitsu in Vietnam. It also built a British American Tobacco factory in the same country.

In Vietnam, the company has more than 700 employees and is now the largest manufacturer and exporter of pre-engineered steel buildings in Southeast Asia. "Our Vietnam plan showed Zami's commitment to the region and it improved our turnaround cycle and met more of our customers' needs," Kobrossy said.

Somsak Yamasamit, Zamil's senior adviser for Thailand and a retired director-general of the Ministry of Commerce, said Zamil had also been very successful with a sales and marketing office in Bangkok since 2000 and this new factory will really help them ramp up their business.

The company's new Thai factory, he said, will manufacture Zamil's

MaxSEAM roof system. "It is one of the strongest and most weather-tight standing seam-roof systems available today," he said.

By locating the roof system's production in Thailand, Somsak said the company was indicating that the country would be a critical part of its overall supply in the region. "I am very happy that they view Thailand as an important and convenient production location," he said.

 Somsak hopes Zamil will be the vanguard of future investments from the Gulf area. "I think their success will attract a lot of Middle East investment into all sectors of the Thai economy," he said.

Kobrossy also was equally upbeat on his company's investment in Thailand. "We have found Thailand to be a very suitable investment location because of its dynamic and vibrant economy. We believe its strategic location and outstanding infrastructure will bring us and others a sound long-term investment in this region," he said.

KI Woo

 The Nation