Tehran, Iran, July 3
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
After years of standstill, Iran is finally going to resume the construction of and operationalize seven steel megaprojects that had been halted due to sanctions and a host of other problems, including disagreements with the Chinese investors of the projects.
“We have already succeeded in operationalizing the direct reduced iron (DRI) unit and one important point is that we are using Chines-European-made equipment, Deputy Minister of Industry Mehdi Karbasian told IRNA news agency July 3.
The Sepiddasth Steel Company in Charmahal-Bakhtiari Province started operation in June and another steel factory in Shadegan, Khuzestan Province will come on stream by September, the official noted.
He further said the rest of the seven factories, in East Azerbaijan, Fars, Razavi Khorasan, South Khorasan, and Kerman, are scheduled to become operational in about one year from now.
These seven steel projects were put on agenda by the then government in 2006, but were left down due to financial problems. The incumbent government followed up on the projects in 2013 when it rose to power.
Now Iran has come to terms with the Chinese investors and the projects will be completed gradually, Karbasian stated.
Iran plans to improve its steel output to 55 million tons per year by 2025. To do so, it should have achieved an iron ore extraction of 135 million tons per year.
Currently the country’s iron ore output stands at 40 million tons per year.