Posted on 19 Jun 2018
New Esfahan Steel (Esco) managing director Mansour Yazdizadeh says Iran’s third-largest steelmaker will produce 2.7 million tonnes of crude steel in the Iranian year through 20 March 2019, increasing to 3mt the year after.
The official was appointed last week (see Kallanish 13 June). At his swearing-in ceremony he talked about raw materials and water supply shortages that have hampered Esco’s production in the past. The recent increase in Esco’s working capital will be spent on procuring steelmaking raw materials, he added.
Esco has for some time been mulling the restart of blast furnace no.1 to enable pig iron production to ramp up to near its full 3.6m t/year capacity. However, this has been delayed by liquidity issues and water shortages.
In the two months through 21 May the firm grew exports 46% on-year to 193,700t.
Last week it also shipped the first batch of rail produced at its 400,000 t/y rail mill commissioned in late 2016 (see Kallanish 15 June).
