New DRI Plant Goes on Stream

After a 10-year hiatus, Sefid Dasht Steel Complex became operational and produced its first batch of direct-reduced iron on Friday, Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization reported on its website.

SDSCO is currently operating with a production capacity of 800,000 tons of DRI per year.

Mobarakeh Steel Company, Iran’s largest flat steel producer, has a 65% stake in the project, while IMIDRO holds the rest of the shares.

SDSCO is currently operating with a production capacity of 800,000 tons of DRI per year. The plant is set to produce as much crude steel following the implementation of its next development phases.

SDSCO, located in the southwestern Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province, is one of the seven steel projects initiated by the former government back in 2006 in the provinces of Fars, Khuzestan, Yazd, Kerman, East Azarbaijan, South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi.

According to IMIDRO, the completion of the seven steel plants will add at least 6 million tons to Iran’s annual crude steel output, while creating 7,000 direct and 35,000 indirect jobs.

As per the 20-Year Vision Plan (2005-25), Iran’s steel industry is stipulated to become the world’s sixth largest producer of the industrial material, producing 55 million tons of crude steel per year by 2025.

“Domestic crude steel production capacity has reached 31 million tons per annum,” Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said earlier this month at the opening ceremony of the first development phase of Kish South Kaveh Steel Company located in the Persian Gulf Mining and Metal Industrial Special Economic Zone located in Hormozgan Province.

SKSCO’s first phase added 1.2 million tons to annual domestic steel industry’s capacity.

source: Financial Tribune