Plans to Commission KSC to Produce Rail

The government is planning to commission Khouzestan Steel Company to produce rails, a member of Majlis Development Commission, Eghbal Mohammadian.

Khouzestan Steel Company is the biggest steel exporter in Iran.

“The minister of roads and urban development has promised to delegate a large part of Iran’s rail production to Khuzestan Province,” he was quoted as saying by Minews.

Based on the goals set in the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22), 14,000 kilometers of new rail tracks are to be laid out by 2022, the MP said, emphasizing that KSC is able to meet this demand in both quality and quantity.

“Domestic rail production in Iran, although less costly compared to importing foreign products, is still struggling to get off the ground,” Jabar Ali Zakeri, the deputy head of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company, said. Esfahan Steel Company has committed  to provide the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways with 40,000 tons of rails by the end of the current year (March 20, 2018), but the company “has yet to reach minimum production capacity and is struggling with the basics of rail production”, ISNA quoted Zakeri as saying.

In November 2016, ESCO launched a 400,000-ton per year rolling mill to produce rail and wide-flange beams but it has not sold any to the national railroad company yet and only trial products have been produced up to now. The failure has prompted officials to find another producer to meet railroad development goals.