Wellington, July 21 NZPA #The steel to build the lines of 425 pylons that will march across Waikato farms in Transpower's electricity grid upgrade is being provided by a Saudi Arabian company, Zamil Steel.

The largest pre-engineered steel building and metal buildings manufacturer in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe, Zamin will be paid 88 million Saudi Arabian riyals ($NZ36.4m).

Zamil Steel employs more than 600 engineers in its chain of factories -- which include six in Saudi Arabia, two in Vietnam and one each in Egypt, India and China -- and its corporate headquarters are in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Its towers and galvanising division, a unit of Zamil Industrial Investment Company will make and supply six different types of lattice steel towers.

The 425 are for the 400kV overhead line of the North Island grid upgrade project, one of the largest electricity projects in this country since 1960.

The contract also calls for the "proto-assembly" and load testing of the 400kV double-circuit overhead line towers, with delivery by the end of 2010. British-based engineer Balfour Beatty is being paid 82 million pounds ($NZ210m) for the construction, in a joint venture, with Australasian engineering and property services company United Group.

The new 186km power line link from Whakamaru to Brownhill Road in southeast Auckland is scheduled to be commissioned in November 2011, but will initially operate at only 220kV.

Other parts of the upgrade include a new switching station at Brownhill Road to connect the overhead lines to the underground cables, and a new substation north of the existing substation at Whakamaru.

With other, smaller, projects to provide security of supply to the upper North Island, the total project is worth up to $824 million with an indicative commissioning date of early 2012.