Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.28/ Trend F.Karimov/
The first phase of a steel plant with an annual production capacity of 1.7 million tons was inaugurated on Thursday in the southern province of Fars in Iran, IRNA reported.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially inaugurated the plant.
Some 3.5 trillion rials (about $285 million) has been invested in the project, which will create 714 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs.
Iran's crude steel production capacity will reach 24 million tons by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2014), Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Vajihollah Ja'fari said on Monday.
Iran's crude steel production capacity currently stands at 20 million tons, the Mehr News Agency quoted Ja'fari as saying.
"By inauguration of some steel production projects in provinces of Gilan, Yazd, Esfahan, and Fars some 4 million tons would be added to the country's total crude steel production capacity," he explained.
The country's steel products output capacity is currently 30 million tons, Ja'fari said, adding that some 17.5 million tons steel products was produced in Iran in the past Iranian calendar year.
Ja'fari said last April that the country's annual crude steel output is projected to reach 55 million tons by 2025.
The latest statistics released by the World Steel Association shows that Iran has produced 6.077 million tons of crude steel in the first five months of 2013.
Iran's crude steel output in May stood at 1.287 million tons, which is 3.7 percent more than in the same period of the previous year.
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