On Monday, January 25, Gianpietro Benedetti, president of Italian plantmaker Danieli SpA, signed an agreement worth €5.7 billion with Iranian President Hassan Rohuani during his visit to Italy, as reported by Italian media sources. Coming after the end of sanctions against Teheran, the visit is part of the first official state visit to Europe by an Iranian president in almost two decades.
The agreement concerns plantmaking orders worth €3.7 billion and a joint venture worth €2 billion called Persian Metallics which is expected to produce six million metric tons of pellets annually to be used in direct reduced iron (DRI) plants.