Iran's crude steel production increased by 7 percent to around 1.88 million tons during the first 2 months Iranian year comparing to the same period of 2008, said the Public Relations of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization.
Besides, the crude steel production of Khorasan Steel stood at 121,502 tons, up by 12 percent in the first quarter 1 as comapred to the same period of the last year. The company, however, plans to build a new smelter with an annual capacity of 720,000 tons of crude steel. 

Al Tuwairqi Holding Company will start production at a new steel complex in 2010. This move will reduce its steel pellets imports to nil by 2010.
“The complex will a production capacity of 2 million tons will raise to 3 million tons the steel billets production capacity of the group which owns 76 percent of Al-Ittefaq Steel Products Company," said Faisal Al-Haddawi, a board member at the firm.
He added, "This is part of our strategic plan to become a fully integrated steel producer and will reinforce our position as the kingdom's largest private steel producer."
The company will commission the complex by 2010. The company purchased the land and the machinery. Without this project, the company needs to import steel billets to meet the design capacity of our reinforced steel plants.
He added that the steel complex which includes a pelletization unit will be called the Arab Iron and Steel Company, which is 100 percent owned by family owned Al Tuwairqi Holding Company.
Haddawi said Al-Ittefaq has a design production capacity of 3 million tons of reinforced steel bars per year but it is currently producing only 1.7 million tons.
He said, "A fifth rolling mill unit of reinforced steel bar is ready to go but we expect to start commercial production in 2010. It has a capacity of 1.3 million tons but it is not viable to start it now given the conditions in the market. Right now we produce 1 million tons of steel pellets per year which partially caters for our current production of reinforced steel. Once we commission the commercial launch of the fifth rolling mill we will no longer need to import steel pellets.”
Al-Ittefaq competes with Al-Rajhi Steel and Hadeed, owned by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation in the lucrative Saudi market, where the government is spending USD 400 billion from oil revenues to develop infrastructure as well as build new schools and universities.
The spending push by the government has helped many industrial firms in the kingdom to offset the repercussions of the global financial crisis on private sector activity which has been hammered by a slowdown in bank lending.
Haddawi said that Al-Ittefaq recorded sales of 1 million tons in the first 7 months of this year which is up 15 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.
He said that "We exceeded our sales projections without having to export anything. It all came from the domestic market despite the high level of inventories we had last year and the competition by importers."

South Korean steel major POSCO will set up a flat steel plant with an initial capacity of 120,000 tons in Bursa to cater demand from automobile sector. The company did not reveal the investment amount.
Ali Kibar, Chairman, Kibar Holding, said," POSCO is involved in a small partnership with Turkey's Kibar Holding." The company owns 10 percent share in Kibar Holding's medium scale galvanic plant in Istanbul. He said that the South Korean steel major has been preparing for the investment for a long while.
The POSCO plant will have start production by 2010 with an annual production of 30 million tons.

Iran's crude steel production in the 4-month period ending July surpassed 3.686 million tons showing a 9 percent increase compared to the same period in 2008.
According to Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Oraganisation, in July an overall of 882,000 tons, up by 12 percent and 672,000 tons, up by 2 percent, of crude steel and steel products were produced.
IMIDRO comprises eight major companies and some 55 operational subsidiaries active in steel, aluminum, copper, cement and mineral exploitation.

Dubai will commission the world's largest single cut and bend facility for steel rebars costing AED 350 million at Techno Park in Jebal Ali.
The plan, which has been under construction since January 2008, will produce 60,000 tons rebar cut and bend of international standard every month.
It was commissioned for testing two months back but the machines are still being progressively tested.
" The rebar cut and bend plant, which will produce cut and bend use in construction, is one of the world's largest factories of its kind and the world's largest single plant," said Mahendra Patel, Group MD of GEA International LLC.
He added, “All of the world's major rebar cut and bend facilities are locked in different sites, not in one contiguous are like one we have here now."
He said,” built on a 1.2 million square feet development by G2 International, a member of Geap International Group, which has been a major supplier of cut and bend steel in the UAE market for over 2 decades, the new plant is part of the AED 350 million investments in the Technopark Complex. About 500 personnel will be employed for various planned activities. This investment includes the land, building construction, state of the art equipment and steel inputs, which we import from Turkey and purchase from the wholly owned government steel facility, Emirates Steel Industries at Industrial City of Abu Dhabi.”
The plant, which will also have the capacity to customize its products to the client's requirements, is a demonstration of Geap International Group's confidence in the economy of Dubai and UAE at a time when several companies in the region are curtailing their activities.
Aside from the rebars cut and bend facilities, the Geap development in Technopark also houses one of the largest state of the art Frozen and Dry Food facilities in the region and facilities for threading of couplers, construction chemicals, ironmongery and access control systems and infrastructure related projects such as thermoplastic production and application facilities, which Geap has pioneered for over 25 years in UAE.

Investment in Iran's Persian Gulf Mines and Metals Special Economic Zone will reach USD 5 billion by the next 5 year.
Bahman Ayar Rezaii, MD of the zone, said, "currently Hormozgan Steel, Hormozal Aluminum and Jonoob Steel projects are being implemented through JV by Iranian and Indian investors in the Persian Gulf zone."
Construction of 3 steel plants with the total production capacity of 3.2 million tons per year and boosting the annual aluminum production capacity by 300,000 tons are the other mid term plans.
Based on a long term plan, Persian Gulf Mines and Metals Special Economic Zone will be turned into a hub of steel and aluminum industry with the annual 10 million tons of steel and 500,000 tons of aluminum outputs.
The Persian Gulf mineral and metal industries special zone is located in Hormozgan province about 13 kilometers west of Bandar Abbas port. The zone is close to the open sea and very near to Iran's southern iron ore reserves as well as natural gas supply. Because of the low cost of steel production there, 2 Indian companies, Essar Steel and TATA Steel have expressed interest in projects.