BANDA ABBAS – Iran’s most advanced steel ingot production plant came on stream on Monday in the southern province of Hormozgan, the IRNA news agency reported.

The Hormozgan Steel Company has the initial production capacity of 1.5 million tons per year. But, infrastructures have been provided for boosting the capacity to three million tons in a year, the report added.

The plant has been built by an Iranian-German consortium (IRITEC, SMS-DEMAG) and is second to none in terms of software systems as well as environment protection facilities.

Iran produced over 9.1 million tons of crude steel in the first eight months of the current calendar year (ended November 21, 2011), showing 11.3 percent rise compared with the same period last year.

Steel products also amounted to 9.9 million tons in the eight-month period of the time, according to the IRNA.

According to the World Steel Association, Iran was the second leading steel producer in the Middle East in 2010 after Turkey.

Iran also ranked 7th among the Asian producers.

Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari announced in May that Iran will become a major steel exporter by March 2016. 

Iran plans to increase its production capacity to 42 million tons per year by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2016).

According to Ghazanfari, Iran currently produces 19 million tons of steel per year.