Sonasid to leave billet market
The leader of Moroccan steel industry Sonasid is another steel company investing in backward integration. The company has been a well known purchaser of steel billets through tenders held periodically. However, it had started a $125 million investment in Jorf Lasfar, next to its bar mill. The new investment is directed to a 1 million tpy capacity EAF, from which the company is planning to supply 140x140 mm billets to its two rolling mills in Jorf Lasfar and Nador. The deputy export director of the company Mr. Majid Kaddouri said that the company has preferred Jorf over Nador due to availability of energy sources there. He added that first casts were taken in August this year and capacity utilization will increase in the next couple of months. The company expects to supply close to 50 percent of its scrap requirement from domestic market. Sonasid, of course currently has two rolling mills: The Jorf Lasfar mill with 350,000 tpy rebar capacity and Nador mill with 600,000 tpy wire rod capacity. It used to import all of its billet requirements but as the new EAF mill reaches its full capacity in time, the company will reduce billet imports gradually.