Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar.15
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: South Korea's POSCO has announced readiness to invest in Iran's steel projects, the Fars News Agency reported on March 15.
A number of officials from POSCO met with officials from Iran's Mobarakeh Steel Company in the Iranian city of Isfahan.
Korea's export-import companies are expected to benefit as the Obama administration issued a statement on January 20 that it would temporarily lift sanctions against Iran, according to Businesskorea website.
South Korea regained the right to resume the export of automobile parts and steel and import of oil from Iran, which has historically been its major supplier.
However, there are concerns that this measure is limiting, as it is a temporary easing, lasting only six months.
The automobile parts industry is to be the biggest beneficiary, as sales of exports in 2012 was $148 million, 28.6 percent of the market, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. The temporary lift of sanctions will give back the luster that Korean auto parts has lost when an influx of Chinese products began to flow to the Iranian market since the sanctions began seven months ago.
The steel industry is among the beneficiaries of the ease of sanctions. Sales of steel products totaled $373 million. The market share of steel products is also 24.3 percent, nearly a quarter of the whole market. Particularly, the demand for steel plates for automobiles is expected to rise, and overall, Iran's focus on manufacturing is expected to help to increase the general demand for steel as a whole.