The General Company for Iron and Steel in Basra Governorate revealed, on Sunday, the government’s agreement with a Chinese company to establish an industrial city with an area of 3,000 dunums, and while it considered that Iraq is about to a major industrial revolution, it confirmed that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani is interested in supporting the iron and steel industry and supporting the local product.
The Director General of the company affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, Abbas said, in a statement reported by the official news agency, and seen by “Economy News”, that “there is a great government interest and from the highest executive authority represented by Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa Al-Sudani with industrial projects, which has been halted for more than two decades, and the General Company for Iron and Steel has stopped since 2003 before it re-works.”
He added, “Government interest does not depend only on the establishment of allocations in the budget law, but there is a personal follow-up from the Prime Minister and through the Minister of Industry and Minerals, for the development and progress of work and achievement and submits a monthly official position to the Prime Minister as he follows up and overcomes obstacles in many matters through quick decision-making and even direct contact with the concerned ministers.”
He added that “our company is not alone specialized in iron and steel, but there are companies in the private sector also producing the rebar material, for example, and we had a meeting with the Prime Minister about two weeks ago under the auspices of the Board of Advisors, and there is a special problem committee to follow up the development of the national industry and the fact that among the demands were the protection of the national product, and the government and the Council of Ministers were rightly supportive and decisions were actually issued to protect the national product, especially armature.”
He noted that “with the large reconstruction and construction movement and the trend to build more than one million housing units, there are existing factories in Iraq and new laboratories currently being built in several governorates, and there is a direction for the government to contract with one of the large Chinese companies in the field of iron and steel, and it was visited in China by a delegation headed by Minister of Industry and Minerals Khaled Batal, and I was one of the members of the Iraqi delegation, and now there are negotiations during this period and two days before there was a meeting in the Ministry of Industry and Minerals.”
He pointed out that “this week we also have meetings with the Chinese company, and this company has been granted three thousand dunums of iron and steel land, and a large industrial city will be built, and this is under the auspices and attention of the Prime Minister, and this will create a great industrial revolution inside the country in addition to the existing factories, including the iron and steel factory, to meet the local need not only at the level of prices, but also in consumer protection and the high quality of the Iraqi rebar produced in our company, and sometimes there is no control over border crossings and some types of rebar are entered that are not within the required specifications.”
He pointed out that “the iron and steel plant in Basra has stopped since 2003 and its energy after completing work in it will reach more than 600 thousand tons and the nodal capacity is more than 500 thousand tons, and we will start production with nodal energies,” pointing out that “during the next few months we will witness the opening of the steel factory that produces (pallet), which is complementary to the (rolling) factory and Iraqi production will meet an important aspect of the national need.”
