Mehdi Karbasian made the remarks on the sidelines of Iranian Iron and Steel Conference, held in Kish Island. He said that Chinese financers will invest in seven steel projects in Iran adding “last week, a team from Iran was sent to China in order to follow the financing plan; on the other hand, several sessions were held this week in Iran with the company.”
“Following the negotiations, we hope to accelerate the implementations of at least 3 to 4 projects, however the results will be finalized on Saturday. The Chinese delegation will hold meetings with National Iranian and Khuzestan’s Steel companies in the upcoming days.” he added.
Moreover within the next two weeks, a high-ranking Chinese delegation will visit Iran who will discuss investing in steel, copper and aluminum projects worth $5 billion, he noted.
Asking him about the presence of multinational companies in Iran’s mine sector he added: “Iranian IMIDRO Company and multinational firms from Switzerland, UK, Germany and Austria have negotiated several weeks ago for partaking in coal, aluminum and zinc projects.”
Explaining about the financing of European countries, the Iranian official said “price and quality are two vital issues which will be considered in attracting foreign investment and if the Chinese hold both the terms, they can certainly be one of the financers.”
The capacities of this sector should be used in its best way in the post-sanction era. Accordingly a team has been established in IMIDRO who will update the data of Iran’s mines and related sector for presenting to the world, Karbasian added.
Iran exported a total of 2.5 million tons of steel products to Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Thailand, Spain and Britain last year. The country has more than 3,000 active mines, producing 9 percent of the world’s gypsum and 2 percent of molybdenum and nitrogen.
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