Dubai's Utmost stays resilient with leaner steel product range

May 14, 2012 | 04:00 AM |

The contraction in steel trading and consumption in the UAE has been reflected in a reduction in products offered by even some of the most successful players in the country, and Utmost Building Materials is a good example of this. The trend is often driven by a need to focus on core products that have steady demand and allow players to be the go-to company in a tough market. As one of the more resilient rebar traders in Dubai, Utmost has bucked the trend of this tightening in steel trading and consumption and survived the economic rise and fall in the emirates. Its product range used to be much broader, according to Vivek Shukla, the company’s senior purchasing manager. “We used to trade a lot of coils as well as angles and channels and beams, but now it is just mainly rebar,” Shukla says at the company office in Bur Dubai, a region of the city’s old town and an historical trading venue. “Because the company has been trading here since 1989, we’re pretty old and well-established. For rebar you....