Iran's Esfahan Steel is due to commence production operations with its third blast furnace in December 2008.
Speaking in relation to the new blast furnace, deputy managing director of Esfahan Steel Mohammad Reza Khosravirad stated, "About 96 percent of equipment weighing a total of about 26,665 mt has already been installed and tested successfully."
Mr. Khosravirad also pointed out that about 77 percent of the equipment had been manufactured locally. With the commissioning of its third blast furnace as well as of some other development projects which are in the final steps of construction, Esfahan Steel will increase its existing capacity of 2.2 million mt per year to 3.6 million mt.