Tata Steel will help Iran establish a 1.5 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) steel slab making facility, a 1.5 mtpa steel billet making capacity, and a three mtpa export oriented steel plant, apart from assisting the country in exploration and mining.

Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman and Iranian Mines and Mining
Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) M. Moazenzadeh signed an agreement on this in Tehran Sunday, according to a statement issued here.

Tata Steel would partner IMIDRO in the ongoing Hormozgan project to establish steel-making operations in the Persian Gulf Special Economic Zone (PGSEZ) at the port city of Bandar
Abbas.

The first phase of this gas-based project would see the establishment of a 1.5 mtpa steel slab making facility, followed by the second phase to establish a 1.5 mtpa steel billet making facility.

Tata Steel would also partner IMIDRO in exploration and mining the untapped Gol-e-Gohar mines in Kerman province and would establish a gas based pellet plant
at the site for using the iron ore.

Tata Steel also intends to establish a separate three mtpa export-oriented steel plant in two modules of 1.5 mtpa
each at the PGSEZ in Bandar Abbas in the vicinity of the Hormozgan project.

"Iran, with its rich steel making inputs and quality infrastructure, can become one of the favourable steel-making locations," Muthuraman said.

"Tata Steel has, after due consideration and evaluation, decided to move ahead with its proposed projects in Iran. Owing to favourable factors in terms of production, the envisaged steel plants would emerge to be amongst the lowest cost producers of steel in the world," he said.