Khuzestan Oxin Steel is going ahead with a project to build a new slab plant following Iranian government approval Sunday, its head of marketing and market research Mohammad Khazami, told S&P Global Platts Wednesday.
"Iran is a notable consumer of large-diameter pipes [and] Oxin is the only producer of the wide plate which is required for large-diameter pipe, and it is a competitive advantage for Oxin," Khazami said.
Managing Director Abdolreza Mahmoudpou was quoted on Wednesday by Minews, an Iranian domestic mining website, as saying that steel making is the most important part of Oxin's development plan.
He added: "At the moment we have to import the slab we need from other countries because the specifications which are required for wide plate production cannot be produced by domestic steel producers."
"Environmental issues and potential pollution were the main concerns and obstacles for this project but, with the advanced technologies which will be implemented in this plant, we have given a guarantee (to the government) to reduce the pollution or even make it zero," he added.
Oxin is a 1.05 million mt /year plate mill in southwestern Iran and is able to produce plate 1,100-4,500 millimeters wide and 2,500-24,000 mm long with a thickness of 5-150 mm. Its main domestic customers are large-diameter pipe makers which supply Iran's oil and gas industries.
Some 650,000 mt of steel plate was produced by the company in the last Iranian year (ended March 20) which is lower than its nominal capacity.
Some 30,000 mt of this was exported, mainly to Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to Khazami.
