Corus - a subsidiary of Tata Steel -  is Europe's second largest steel producer with annual revenues of around GBP12 billion and a crude steel production of over 20 million tonnes. It now has its sights on the GCC market.

It covers seven major areas in the construction sector. From structured steel, roofing, walling and flooring to housing and highway engineering, its expansion in the GCC region for its construction offering has told a very interesting story for this company. And it is not short of innovations. Its wall systems, for example, include a Corus-patented construction material, Bi-Steel, which comprises two steel plates that are connected together to form panels by an array of friction welded transverse bars. The void between these panels is then filled with ready-mixed concrete to create a composite material with outstanding strength.

Now the construction part of this powerhouse is gaining more traction, and threatening to dominate the spectrum of sectors that Corus sells into - which includes clients in rail, energy and power generation and engineering. It is also environment-conscious too. Earlier this year it co-commissioned and lent its top research to an initiative called Target Zone, from which a guide has been published providing detailed cost analyses and route maps for achieving low or zero carbon schools and BREEAM Outstanding ratings.