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Iran:
Industry minister reports additional 2m tonnes steel production capacity
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Minister
of Industry and Mines Eshaq Jahangiri said here Thursday [21 June] that
factories are estimated to turn out two million tonnes of additional steel
by March 2002.
He added, with this
extra output, steel production capacity will exceed 9.5m tonnes annually. World
steel production, he said, reached 850 million tonnes last year, of which
Iran's share was 6.7 million tonnes. Iran thus ranked 23rd among steel
producing countries, he observed. Speaking
at ceremonies marking the inauguration of Khorasan Steel Complex, attended
by President Khatami, he said it is estimated that by the end of the Third
Five-Year Development Plan (March 2000-March 2005) the annual steel
production capacity will exceed 14.7m tonnes. He said that steel production reached 25m tonnes in last four years which is 25 per cent higher than the output in the preceding four years. Jahangiri
said that mineral output registered a 30 per cent increase, supplying 70
per cent of the domestic need for steel raw material. He
said that 50 per cent of total railway capacity was allocated to
transporting the output of the National Steel Company last year. Last
week, Managing Director of Iran's Steel Mills Complex Mostafa Mo'azzenzadeh
said the national steel output has so far stood at seven million tonnes a
year. Steel
exports are expected to hit 1.5m tonnes from a 1.3 million tonnes last
year. He also put the total outlays for the Khorasan Steel Complex at 152 million dollars in addition to 6bn rials. |
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Dated 28th June 2001 |
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