Steel Production Capacity Boosted by 700,000 Tons/Year

EghtesadOnline: Khorasan Steel Complex’s newly-launched steel plant, with a crude steel output capacity of 700,000 tons/year, has doubled the steelmaker’s production capacity and made it join the ranks of Iranian mills with crude steel capacities exceeding 1 million tons.

News ID: ۷۷۵۸۲۷

01 May 2017

It also makes KSCO the largest steel complex in eastern Iran.

Inaugurated on Thursday, the plant was established at a cost of 7.2 trillion rials ($189.47 million), KSCO’s Managing Director Seyyed Hossein Ahmadi was quoted as saying by IRIB.

“The construction of steel plant No. 2 first started in September 2010. It features a 110-ton electric arc furnace and a casting machine, among other machinery, about 30% of which are Italian and Chinese,” he said.

According to Financial Tribune, the Italian Danieli group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of equipment and metal manufacturing plants, signed an agreement with KSCO back in 2016 to revamp the company’s EAF technology.

The new mechanism, which was expected to take one year to install, was aimed at reducing the mill’s raw material and energy consumption and boost production.

Khorasan Steel Company was established in 1989 by the giant Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel in the northeastern part of Neishapur County in Khorasan Razavi Province. The complex is capable of producing 550,000 tons of structural steel, 630,000 tons of billets and 1.6 million tons of direct-reduced iron per year.

The company also has other ambitious expansion plans. Its 2.5 million-ton/year pellet-making plant in Sangan Mineral Zone is set to become operational this year. It is also busy setting up an iron ore concentrate plant, with an additional capacity of 2.5 million tons/year.

Upon the completion of these projects, KSCO will be Iran’s first producer of the industrial material with the complete steel production chain at its disposal in one province.

Known as “Iran’s Mineral Heaven” and located in Khorasan Razavi Province, Sangan is home to over 1.2 billion tons of estimated iron ore reserves and further explorations are expected to increase its reserves further. Currently six mineral processing plants are under construction in the region (including the two aforementioned plants) with an aggregate annual production capacity of 17.5 and 15 million tons of iron ore concentrate and pellets respectively.

Iron ore pellet is an enriched form of the metal shaped into balls and used as raw material for blast furnaces, which is used in integrated steelmaking, during which coke, iron ore and pellets react together under a hot airflow to form liquid hot metal, also called pig iron.

Iran aims to become the world’s sixth largest steel producer as per the 20-Year Vision Plan (2005-25), which envision an annual production of 55 million tons of crude steel and 20-25 million tons of exports per year by the deadline.

According to Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Iranian steel mills have so far materialized about 60% of the annual steel production capacity target.