Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 10
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has opened a $1.2-billion L/C for investment in Lamerd special energy zone in southern Fars province, IRNA quoted Iranian deputy industry minister Mehdi Karbasian as saying.
The Lamerd special energy zone offers facilities to investors, such as importing goods without paying any charges, benefiting from tax exemption, and participating by up to 49 percent in foreign investments, he added.
He further said that a contract, worth €1.8 billion, has been signed with a Chinese company to implement seven steel projects, each with the capacity to add 800,000 tons to the country's steel products output.
On October 30, Karbasian said that Chinese MCC Company is ready to finance seven Iranian steel projects, Mehr News Agency reported.
On June 6, 2012, Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mahmoud Dodangeh, and MCC President Shen Heting signed a memorandum of understanding to expand industrial cooperation.
The MCC and China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) have jointly invested $20 billion in previous projects in Iran. Press TV reported that with the addition of 12 more projects, the investment is estimated to increase to $30 billion.
Iran totally manufactured 17.417 million tons of steel products last year, with 2 percent growth compared with the preceding year, ILNA reported.
Also, crude steel production reached 14.873 million tons, showing 5.7 percent growth year on year.
Iranian Deputy Industry Minister Vajihollah Jafari said last April that the country's annual crude steel output is projected to reach 55 million tons by 2025.
"The output stood at 12.7 million tons last year," he said, adding that Iran also had produced some 16 million tons of steel products.