Iraq’s Ministry of Industry and Minerals is studying seven bids to build a steel plant in the southern province of Basra, a senior official in the State Company for Iron and Steel (SCIS) has told the Zawya Projects Monitor.
The bidders are from Turkey, Korea, Italy, Austria and a German-Egyptian consortium, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Turkish company, which the official declined to name, is the most likely to win the project. The winner will be announced before December 2012, and work on plant construction will begin in early 2013, the official said.
According to Zawya, the SCIS aims to build an integrated steel complex in the southern city of Basra as part of the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, at a cost of $3 billion.
The project will be built in two or three phases. Phase one will cost $730 million and includes the construction of an electric furnace and a 500 megawatts combined gas-thermal power plant. The power plant will supply 300 megawatts to the steel mill and the rest will be used by Basra city.