Extracted steel from ruined buildings of Raqqa, a small compensation
Al-Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Ahmad Al-Hassan
The fierce battles inside the city against the Islamic State caused great devastation to the city.
Destruction of buildings and the infrastructure facilitated the way for investors and venture capitalists to invest in this destruction and create small projects.
“Hamwi Metal Factory” in al-Saqoura village, 10 km western Raqqa, northern Syria is one of these projects that re-manufactures steel, after passing through several stages, extracted from the destroyed buildings.
Small compensation for a House’s loss
Ali Farhan, the executive director of the factory, told North-Press that the production capacity of the factory is about four tons of iron per day. “We buy the used steel by the owners of the destroyed houses, who see in this sale a simple compensation for the loss of their houses,” he said.
As for the progress of work in the factory, Farhan explains, “We buy steel with a diameter between 16-35 mm, and after the remanufacturing process, we get an iron with a diameter of between 8-16 mm and these sizes are the most demanded ones in the construction process.”
The process of remanufacturing is carried out in several stages, starting with the straightening out the iron to facilitate its use and then moving on to the second stage, which is cutting the iron into parts that do not exceed three meters in order to be easily entered into large crude oil furnaces.
Farhan clarified that the iron is exposed to a temperature up to 400°c, and then moves into the pressing and pulling machine to reach its final form without losing its hardness and quality, pointing out that the factory also produces the armored steel that is used in the industrial field.
The market
Steel is sold in all regions of northern Syria, this factory in addition to another two ones, provide a large amount of iron for reconstruction.
Ali Farhan explained the method of discharging the production by saying, “We produce iron on demand throughout the Syrian north, as our production reaches Manbij in the west and to Amuda and Qamishli in the north-east in addition to the local market in Raqqa.”
Khalid Al Hussain, a manager of a small contracting company working in the field of removing rubbles of the destroyed buildings, explained to North-Press how they work and the conditions they offer to the owners of the destroyed houses saying, “We remove the rubbles of the destroyed buildings in exchange for a percentage of the extracted iron between 60-80% of the amount of the extracted iron according to its type, thickness, and quality.”
He also pointed out that he sells the obtained percentage to the iron’s traders at prices ranging between SYP 160-180 per kilo, according to the thickness of the piece, the price of a new piece is SYP 320 per kilo.
Fuad al-Ali, whose building was destroyed in al-Bado neighborhood, said, “The amount of steel that I’ve extracted from my building has decreased the cost of its removal, and I got about 30% of my building’s iron.”
Al Hamwi Steel Factory provides work for more than 60 workers, distributed among straightening out, parting, smelting and re-manufacturing sections.
This local project is helping to alleviate the hardships people face in removing the rubbles of their destroyed houses.