Power Outage: Iran steel association presents emergency production blueprint to govt

The Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA), in a letter to the Iranian government, presented its proposed plan for continuing steel production in the event of an electricity shortage. According to the proposals, with the allocation of 2,000 megawatt (MW) that the Ministry of Energy has promised to the sector, the mills will be able to carry on 40% of the production process with about 90% labour.

According to Chilan online, ISPA has drafted the proposals keeping in mind that in the event of a power outage emergency, production will not be hit, which, in turn, can prevent impacting the national economy and also help the mills honour their export obligations apart from satisfying domestic demand.

The proposals have further considered technical limitations of production, since stopping furnaces can make mills incur huge expenses, as well as market conditions across product categories. The proposals have also considered the condition of the mills and economic state of each province and have divided the companies into two categories A and B in such a way that production gets distributed evenly and there is no problem in meeting domestic demand.

Domestic steel demand has been the basis of the proposed programme of ISPA. And, in products that warrant more power consumption, higher power allocation has been sought.

Production plan for categories of steel

Iron ore concentrate: continuous production with 50% of power consumption.

Pellets: continuous production with 50% of power consumption.

Sponge iron: continuous production with 60% of power consumption.

Slabs: continuous production with 50% of power consumption.

Ingots production through EAF method:

Group A: From Friday morning till 11 o'clock Monday.

Group B: From 11 a.m. Monday till 12 p.m. Thursday.

Ingots produced through induction furnace route:

Group A: From Friday morning until 11 o'clock on Monday.

Group B: From 11 a.m. Monday to 12 p.m. Thursday.

Flat steel: Production with power consumption from 11 pm to 11 am (Saturdays to Wednesdays).

Long steel: Continuous production with power consumption at all hours of the day (Thursdays and Fridays).

It is worth mentioning that ISPA has not provided a plan for the steel industry in general but a detailed production schedule for each steel mill in case of power shortages.