Egyptian steelmaker Suez Steel's new direct reduced iron plant and EAF steel mill will be operational in November this year, with scrap substitute produced at the plant, a company executive told Platts Steel Business Briefing on Wednesday.
The facility will house an EAF steelworks with a capacity of 1.25 million tons/year supplied by Danieli and a DRI plant with a capacity of 1.95 million tons/year, which will increase Suez Steel's total crude steel capacity of 2 million tons/year. It will become Egypt's second largest steel producer after Ezz.
Blooms and round logs from the plant are available for sale on the open market, but this will depend on "market conditions", the manager said. Platts SBB has been informed that, following the initial Q3 allocation for commissioning of the steel mill and DRI plant, talks with the Egyptian government on the supply of power for the plant have been concluded, while internal unrest in Egypt has delayed the project launch slightly.
Suez Steel is part of Solb Misr, which also counts rebar rerollers Misr National Steel and Egypt Company for Iron & Steel as part of its portfolio.
In terms of market outlook, long product imports from China are a hot topic. "It offers longs and semis everywhere, including markets like China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia," said the executive. "Although people are not very keen on buying Chinese goods, I believe that if the price is right, people buy. I know Saudi Arabia has started to buy goods from China."
"The situation is a problem for Turkish steelmakers: scrap has not dropped fast enough compared to iron ore and [Turkish mills] have to react somehow," he said.
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