Source: World Metal Guide

Public investment in infrastructure construction supports the continuous improvement of Iraq's steel production capacity. Relevant data show that Iraqi steel producers increased their long rolling capacity by 12.3% in 2024.

In March 2024, the Iraqi Basra State Steel Company (SCIS) put into operation a 500,000 tons/year rebar rolling plant in Khor Al-Zubair, which can produce Ø8-32mm rebar products, which means that the plant has resumed long product production. The plant was closed in 2003 due to local political tensions and lack of investment.

At the same time, SCIS is advancing the renovation of a 500,000 tons/year steelmaking workshop, which includes a 70-ton electric arc furnace, a 70-ton LF furnace and a four-strand continuous caster for producing 150mm×150mm square billets. The new steelmaking unit will replace old equipment, but the company has not yet disclosed the specific commissioning date.

Separately, Muhaj Baghdad has signed a contract with Danieli to supply equipment for its new steel mill in the Al-Hilla Industrial Zone near Baghdad. This new TMT (Indian Standard) rebar producer will enter the Iraqi market within two years. The new mill will use special high-speed rolling technology and produce 500,000 tons of Ø10-40mm rebar per year. With this investment, Muhaj Baghdad will become a major player in the Iraqi TMT rebar market. The high-speed mill is expected to start operation at the end of the third quarter of 2025.

Danieli will also supply a three-strand billet continuous caster for Muhaj Baghdad's TMT rebar plant, with a designed annual capacity of 500,000 tons/year, mainly producing 130mm×130mm billets. The equipment will feed billets to the high-speed rebar mill in hot charging mode at a rate of 70 tons per hour. The new continuous caster will be equipped with a 1000mm long crystallizer, multi-point straightening technology with arc radii of 7m and 13m, and a water cooling system.

To expand capacity, Muhabbaghdad also plans to install a wire rod mill, and the layout of the new plant is designed to reserve space for future production lines.

Qaiwan Group's annual production of 400,000 tons of Ø8-32mm TMT rebar rolling production line will be put into operation in July 2023. The group will also build a melting shop for billet production at the Qaiwan Steel Plant in Kalar, Sulaymaniyah Province, using a 90-ton induction furnace. However, the company did not disclose the approximate commissioning date of the melting shop.

Although market participants said that steel demand has improved, the scrap supply situation has deteriorated. A market source said that Iraq is a very good market and domestic investors want to own their own steel mills, but they are currently facing two major problems, namely high electricity prices and raw material supply.

Currently, Mass Iraq Steel Industries Company (abbreviated as: Mass Steel Company) has solved the second problem. The company is currently building a direct reduced iron production plant (about 2.5 million tons/year) in its plant. The equipment will be integrated into the production chain, giving producers flexibility and not being affected by external metallized product supply.

Maas Steel is in negotiations with equipment manufacturers, mainly for the supply of direct reduced iron production equipment, and civil engineering will also start in the near future. After the contract is signed, Danieli will need about 7-12 months to manufacture the equipment, and then install and debug it before it can be put into production. Maas Steel's original plan was to build a plant in Iran near the Iraq-Iran border. After the United States imposed sanctions on Iran, it decided to change the location and install the direct reduced iron production equipment in the Iraqi plant. The project is currently progressing smoothly, and the commissioning time of the new direct reduced iron production equipment may not be earlier than 2026.

Currently, Maas Steel's steelmaking workshop is equipped with a 120-ton electric arc furnace that uses scrap steel and direct reduced iron as raw materials, a 650,000-ton/year rebar mill and a 600,000-ton/year medium-sized section mill.

After all the above projects are put into production within two years, Iraq's billet production capacity will increase by 1.4 million tons/year to 4.9 million tons/year, long product capacity will increase by 500,000 tons/year to 4.6 million tons/year, and more than 2 million tons/year of direct reduced iron production capacity will be added.

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