July 25, 2008

Tunisian Steel expansion project to be ready by September

Tunisian Steel Manufacturing Company expects the expansion project concentrating on adding another EAF furnace with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year to come on stream at the beginning of September 2008.

The work of setting up this furnace started during December 2007. This project was preceded by boosting the production capacity of the present furnace from 65000 tonnes up to 100,000 tonnes per year. This expansion came on stream during July 2007. These expansions will result in boosting the steel billets production capacity up to 100,000 tonnes per year.

During the first quarter of this year it produced 20,000 tonnes of billets against 16,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2007. Its production of reinforcing steel amounted to a little bit more than 26,000 tonnes. It rose its prices of the reinforcing steel up to USD 850 per tonne in the first quarter of 2008 as against USD 700 per tonne in the same period in 2007.