Major Iranian steel producers Khouzestan Steel Сompany (KSC) and Mobarakeh Steel Company (MSC) have ramped up slabs shipment exports. The two companies have not only raised export volumes but also expanded their share of foreign markets.
KSC has shown the best results in diversification of its slabs sales market. With foreign supplies of 625,000 tons per year in total, recently the company has considerably increased the share of semis for flats production, according to Metal Expert – a Ukraine-based provider of news and analysis on for steel products and steelmaking raw materials industries.
This is attributed to development of new sales markets among other reasons. In June and July KSC supplied 80,000 tons and 50,000 tons of slabs respectively to Brazil’s Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), which suffers from a lack of the material due to the stoppage of a blast furnace. Although Brazil on its own is the largest global semis exporter, cooperation with Iranian slabs suppliers has good chances for further progress.
“KSC can export its slabs to the entire world because its products have got the required quality for export,” an unnamed CSN technical representative commented in a visit to KSC production site. Besides, the supplier is making almost regular supplies of slabs to the Far East region, in particular Taiwan and South East Asia.
Another major slab exporter MSC, its subsidiary Hormozgan Steel Complex (HOSCO) in particular, has also enhanced its position. Over the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 20-July 21), HOSCO shipped 365,000 tons of semis abroad, representing a 20-fold increase year-on-year. While KSC places greater emphasis on Far Eastern destinations and Brazil, MSC focuses on the European market. The producer has signed a framework agreement with Italy’s Marcegaglia, which, apart from HRC (hot rolled coil) supplies, stipulates monthly shipments of about 20,000-30,000 tons of slabs.
