Iran inaugurates steel mill with 14.45 million-ton annual capacity

TEHRAN,June 29(MNA) – A steel mill with a capacity to produce 1.7 million tons of steel ingots per year came on stream on Thursday in the city of Kovar in the southern Iranian province of Fars. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially inaugurated the steel mill on Thursday. The project cost €89 million plus 3.5 trillion rials (about $285 million) and will create over 700 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs, according to the report. It is also projected to produce four million tons of sponge iron, six million tons of iron ore pellets, and 2.75 million tons of steel slabs annually.  The mill’s output will meet 12 percent of the country’s need for steel products. Iran's crude steel production capacity will reach 24 million tons by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which concludes on March 20, 2014, Iranian Deputy Industry, Mines and Trade Minister Vajihollah Jafari said on Monday. Iran's crude steel production capacity currently stands at 20 million tons, the Mehr News Agency quoted Jafari as saying. In April, Jafari said that the country's annual crude steel output is projected to reach 55 million tons by 2025. The latest statistics compiled by the World Steel Association show that Iran produced 6.077 million tons of crude steel in the first five months of 2013. Iran's crude steel output in May 2013 stood at 1.287 million tons, which is a 3.7 percent rise compared to May 2012.