Inauguration of Modern Steel Ingot Plant

Hormozgan Steel Company is currently in trial operation with the capacity of 1,5 Mt/a.

But, infrastructures have been provided for boosting the capacity to 3 Mt/a. The plant has been established by an Iranian-German consortium (IRITEC, SMS-DEMAG) and is second to none in terms of software systems as well as environment protection facilities. Iran produced over 9,1 Mt of crude steel in the first eight months of the current calendar year (ended November 21, 2011), showing 11,3 % rise compared with the same period last year. Steel products also amounted to 9,9 Mt in the eight-month period of time, according to the IRNA news agency. According to the World Steel Association, Iran was the second leading steel producer in the Middle East in 2010 after Turkey. Iran also ranked 7th among the Asian producers. Iran will become one of the world's main steel exporters by March 2016, Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said in May. Iran plans to reach the production capacity of 42 Mt/a by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Plan (March 2016). The nation's steel production capacity is currently said to be 19 Mt/a (12/2011).