Uzbekistan is to start developing its
iron ore resources in order to provide support for the growth of the domestic metallurgical sector.
Currently,
Uzbekistan has only one steel plant – Uzmetkombinat, which has an annual
production capacity of 750,000 metric tons of crude steel and which uses
scrap as raw material.
However, due to the continuous increase in world
scrap prices, it is becoming unprofitable for Uzmetkombinat to use
scrap - which the plant has to import - in its steel
production.